 |
LATIN AMERICA |
| |
Illegal Drug
Trade Generates $700 Million a Year in Peru
LIMA – Peru’s drug traffickers enjoy profits
of roughly $700 million a year and that
money is finding its way into every corner
of the national economy, a prominent expert
said here Monday.
Jaime Garcia Diaz, a professor at the
University of Lima, told a press conference
that according to the most reliable recent
estimates, Peru is exporting $1.2 billion
worth of cocaine annually.
“This does not make us a narco-economy, as
that number equals 1 percent of national GDP
(gross domestic product) or 5 percent of
exports, but in some regions, such as
Ayacucho o Huanuco, drug-trafficking
activity represents up to 12 percent of
regional GDP,” he said.
Garcia agreed with Peruvian drug czar Romulo
Pizarro, who was also at the press
conference, that the illicit trade is
extending its tentacles into more and more
sectors of the economy, as traffickers seek
places to launder their profits.
Drug trafficking organizations have been
putting money into mining, real estate and
home renovation, catering and the more
profitable niches in agriculture, including
coffee, the two men said.
To cope with the phenomenon, the government
needs to coordinate the efforts of police,
courts, the Devida counter-narcotics agency
and the tax service, they said.
The relatively new – and, according to
Pizarro, underfunded and undermanned –
Financial Intelligence Unit received 2,379
reports about “suspicious transactions” in
2008 and another 1,217 so far this year, but
only around 12 percent of those reports lead
to investigations, Garcia said.
Activities linked to the laundering of drug
proceeds can lead to unfair competition,
exchange-rate volatility and inflation in
prices for land and buildings.
Money laundering also weakens Peru’s
institutions, Garcia and Pizarro said.
Garcia stressed that any anti-laundering
strategy must include Peru’s neighbors
Colombia – the world’s leading cocaine
producer -and Bolivia, while Pizarro
complained that neither the United States
nor the European Union have been generous
with funding for Lima’s efforts in this
regard. EFE |
|
|
 |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
