Pursuits
Colombia's Discount Currency Exchanges Are Funneling Drug Money
- Hundreds of currency dealers sell dollars at 10% discount
- Cocaine gangs and illegal miners supply many of those dollars
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They are in high-end malls, at the international airport, even on the steps of the nation’s central bank. Most display stamped customs documents, making them appear not only benign but official.
Yet hundreds of cut-rate dollar changers across Colombia form part of the scaffolding of the country’s thriving illegal drug and gold trade, some with links to Marxist guerrillas, according to current and former officials. Cocaine traffickers and illegal miners use some of the currency dealers to convert ill-gained dollars into pesos. Customers benefit from a 10-percent discount on the rate banks and investors use.