Cartels Are Making More Money from Gold Than Drugs Thanks to Legal Loopholes, Experts Say

Gold trafficking in Latin America is proving to be more lucrative than drug trafficking for criminal organizations. With prices skyrocketing to over $3,000 an ounce in early 2025, criminal networks are increasingly diving into illegal gold mining.

Julia Yansura, an expert on environmental crime and illicit finance with the FACT Coalition, broke down the issue for InSight Crime. According to Yansura, organized crime has seized on the soaring price of gold and its discreteness (in comparison to cash) as an opportunity to fund everything from arms purchases to laundering drug money.

"Criminal groups are making more money from illegal gold in places like Colombia and Peru than from cocaine," Yansura said, highlighting the leading role both countries occupy in global cocaine production.

Illegal gold mining, which often happens without permits or oversight, has surged across South America. Per the expert, cartels and organized crime rings are either directly mining gold or extorting informal miners. Once they have the gold, they move it across borders, using it to buy real estate, invest in businesses, or funnel it through banks.

While much of the world has cracked down on cash-based money laundering, Yansura says gold has become the "massive loophole" in the system–it is always increasing in value, difficult to track, and easier to move.

Historically, authorities worldwide have focused on flagging, tracking and restricting bulk cash. But crime experts note that gold can cross borders with far less scrutiny—and that's exactly what traffickers are taking advantage of.

Criminals often launder their profits in different countries than where the illegal mining takes place. Yansura explained how this illicit business focuses on exploiting weak financial systems, shady shell companies, and anonymous business structures in places like Panama, Ecuador—and even the United States.

Yansura warns that the U.S., with its longstanding problems around anonymous shell companies, is a top destination for laundering dirty gold money. And troublingly, she says the Trump administration is rolling back important anti-money laundering tools, making it harder to crack down on illicit financial flows—even though stopping these flows is essential to fighting drug trafficking.