Drug Trafficking, Laundering and Neo-Liberal Economics: Perverse Effects for a Developing Country

Abstract

The distribution pattern of the proceeds of drug trafficking amongst the producing countries, between the cartels of traffickers and the producers themselves, has remain unchanged for some years. This means that approximately 90 per cent of profits continue to be made in industrialised, drug-consuming countries, whilst only 10 per cent return to the producing countries. Given the scale of the ‘narco-dollar’ problem, most governments are keen to show that they are doing something to combat money laundering and drug trafficking. Now and again operations are mounted, such as the famous ‘Casquete Polar’ at the end of the 1980s against the Medellin Cartel. Financial scandals are also made public, and those in power are imprisoned, as in the case of General Noriega of Panama. Curiously, accused and fugitives are always linked with the third world. Rare indeed are prosecutions against drug traffickers or financial institutions of the industrialised world, which is precisely where most of the proceeds of drug trafficking are kept.

This chapter is an editorially re-ordered, shortened and re-presented version of the original published Spanish text. Changes have been introduced that are the responsibility of the editors, bearing in mind a European readership and the aims of the book. Some sections, references and other details have been omitted. Please see original: Campodónico, 1994. The original was translated for the editors by Simone White, Research Associate, ISDD. The editors are grateful to the author, the translator, and the Andean Commission of Jurists for permission to use the material in this way.