Colombia is at the forefront of the world fight against money laundering and has seized more than 75,000 illegally obtained assets over the last ten years, according to Deputy Justice Minister Pablo Robledo.
Speaking at Fifth Conference of signatories to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime in Vienna, Austria, the deputy minister said that “a successful policy is not restricted to the traditional mechanism of increased penalties, but must weaken the financial structures of criminal organizations.”
He added that the government has developed mechanisms to fight money laundering which allowed it to confiscate goods including 371 aircraft, 748 boats, 5,500 rural properties, 17,000 urban properties, and 10,000 vehicles.
Colombia also reduced coca cultivation by 60%, from 163,000 hectares to 68 hectares in the last 10 years, the Colombian official said.
“We have seized over 1,350 tons of cocaine, 1,400 tons of marijuana and seven tons of heroin over the past decade,” Robeldo said in a statement on the Ministry of Defense website
Robledo called for an international cooperation to fight crime, because “a global problem requires a global response.”