by Carolyn Beeler
Global Post
Organized crime networks in Latin America have long made their money off of drugs.
But over the past decade, as gold prices have soared, cartels have increasingly turned to illegally mining the metal to earn cash.
In Peru and Colombia, they’re now making more money exporting illegal gold than cocaine.
Eighty percent of the gold mined in Colombia and up to 90 percent of the gold mined in Venezuela is produced illegally.