A military intelligence report that was leaked to newspaper El Espectador sheds a light on Colombia’s illegal arms imports.
According to the report, most of the arms that were seized by the authorities between 2021 and 2022 were fabricated legally by American and European arms manufacturers.
How many arms are imported illegally is unknown, but the report revealed that border authorities seized 10,916 shipments of one or more firearms in 2021 alone.
The United States, where firearms can be purchased legally, is the primary origin country of weapons that were seized, according to report.
Other major providers of military-grade weapons that end up in the hands of illegal armed groups are Belgium, France, Spain, Germany, Hungary and Russia.
Many of the weapons that end up in Colombia are initially shipped to Panama and the Dominican Republic, two countries that also play a major role in the global cocaine trade.
In fact, the organized crime groups that traffic cocaine from South America to the US and Europe appear to be arming Colombia’s illegal armed groups in barter deals using the same routes, according to the report.
These foreign groups allegedly negotiate their arms deals with Colombian illegal armed groups like paramilitary organization AGC, Los Pachenca from Santa Marta and La Cordillera from Pereira.
In its report, military intelligence also expressed its concern about the involvement of corrupt elements within the National Army that were involved in the illegal arms trade.
Previous investigations revealed that military commanders allegedly had been selling arms to dissidents factions of the now-defunct guerrilla group FARC.
Arms that are trafficked via Panama seem to enter Colombia via legal and illegal cocaine trade hubs on the Caribbean and Pacific coasts, and on the southern border with Ecuador.
Dominican arms traffickers ship weapons to Colombia’s Caribbean coast and to Venezuela from where the firearms are trafficked to Colombia’s eastern border.
Domestic arms traffickers, including members of the military, control the domestic distribution and sales of illegal firearms, according to the report.