Prosecutors from both nations would apply new technologies to counteract the advance of drug trafficking. They also observed the excessive use of cryptocurrencies in crimes in various Latin American countries.
Francisco Barbosa, the attorney general of Colombia, observed an increase in crimes with cryptocurrency technology. These crimes include the drug trafficking industry in Latin America, which, according to him, expands to Honduras, Panama, Mexico, and the United States of America, among other countries.
The announcement appeared in an interview with the Proceso Digital news agency on November 10. After a meeting in the city of Tegucigalpa with his counterpart from Honduras, Oscar Fernando Chinchilla, he communicated the alliance of the countries to fight against crimes with cryptocurrencies.
The Colombian prosecutor explained that organized crime is gaining ground regarding the use of cryptocurrencies to commit cybercrimes. He precisely highlighted that these digital assets serve as tools to launder money from drug trafficking and migration. Therefore, these are the two main situations on which they will focus to fight.
Drug Trafficking Uses Cryptocurrencies as Money Laundering from Mexico and the United States of America
The official believes that organized crime works with the newest technologies, so the prosecutors must do the same to fight against it. The officials also explain that security forces must work together using strategies designed to reduce cybercrime networks.
The report also points out that drug trafficking groups use technology to have international reach. The report says that large drug plantations, such as cocaine, reside in Colombia, and they are now expanding to Central America, Mexico, and the United States of America. Recently, a case of narco money laundering with bitcoin that also involved Peru and Bolivia got stopped.
The trafficking of illegal migrants from Panama that Colombia fights is often related to the drug trafficking industry. The report states that the leaders of these criminal groups use people in need to lead a drug trafficking aimed at the United States of America, which can then get paid for with cryptocurrencies to launder money.
Recently, Colombia’s drug trafficking problem got satirized in digital artwork. The artist Camilo Restrepo launched a non-fungible token (NFT) like a bag of cocaine for sale to ironize the drug trade in the South American country.
In any case, the Colombian attorney general does not present figures or statistics on drug trafficking cases that use cryptocurrencies.
A report from the World Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) indicates that the number of money laundering operations in digital currencies is small compared to those that use traditional ways with fiat money.
SWIFT is the organization that leads the interbank messaging system used by almost all banks worldwide to transfer funds between them; it is a daily used system that allows achieving transfers of billions of dollars between banks.
By: Jenson Nuñez
