Investigation and Analysis of Organized Crime

InSight Crime

Colombia

Colombia Profile

After more than half a century of civil war and the rise and fall of drug trafficking empires, Colombia has made huge strides in improving its security situation in recent years. However, it remains beset by guerrilla rebels and criminal networks.

News

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InSight Crime’s 2018 Homicide Round-Up

A worsening crisis in Venezuela, dark days in Nicaragua, an ever more fragile...

Groups

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Puntilleros

Los Puntilleros are a group that was, presumably, created from the union of the...

Personalities

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José Bayron Piedrahita Ceballos, alias ‘El Árabe,’ or the ‘Patron de Caucasia’

José Bayron Piedrahita Ceballos is presumed to be one of the biggest drug...

Groups

Puntilleros

EPL

1st Front Dissidence

FARC

As the biggest irregular army in Colombia, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia - FARC) have long operated in various regions of the country in search of resources to fund their insurgency. They agreed to end their 52-year war against the government in August 2016, as part of a peace process that began in 2012. The FARC are the oldest and most important guerrilla group in the Western Hemisphere. They have long financed their political and military battle against the Colombian government through kidnapping, extortion and participating in the drug trade on various levels.

Rastrojos

The Rastrojos were born out of the powerful Norte del Valle drug cartel and rose to become one of the most powerful transnational criminal syndicates in Colombia, until their top leadership surrendered or was captured in 2012.

ELN

The government of Colombia and the country's largest remaining guerrilla group have agreed to a bilateral ceasefire, but the rebels' lack of unity may make enforcement difficult.

AUC

The United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia - AUC) was a coalition of right-wing death squads that used the conflict to camouflage their illicit economic activities. These included drug trafficking, displacement, kidnapping, and extortion. The AUC once operated in two-thirds of the country with approximately 30,000 soldiers.

Urabeños

The Urabeños -- also known as Clan Usuga -- are one of the most ambitious, ruthless and aggressively expansionist of Colombia's drug trafficking organizations. One of a number of groups made up of former mid-level paramilitary leaders, they are one of the last Colombian criminal groups with a truly national presence.