FARC Worlds Bigest Cocaine producer: Marxists with a Better Business Plan

According to a document captured by Colombian military intelligence, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)—the South American nation's biggest guerrilla army—negotiated a deal in 2007 to supply Mexican drug cartels directly on consignment, bypassing the gangs that had previously served as go-betweens.

Under the pact, the FARC undertook to provide a kind of vendor financing for shipments of tons of cocaine, in essence taking on more risk in search of higher margins. The flood of cash that has since flowed to the guerrillas has helped them remain a threat to the government of President Alvaro Uribe and has offset the damage to their finances inflicted by a seven-year army offensive. "I've heard the FARC derives somewhere between $1 billion and $2 billion a year from the trade," says Michael Braun, who stepped down in 2008 as the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's operations chief. "I happen to believe that number is woefully underestimated."

The FARC, a Marxist group, has been fighting to topple Colombia's government for 45 years, making it the oldest guerrilla force in Latin America. More than a decade ago it began to finance its operations with cocaine sales and has since become the world's biggest producer.

For more-Marxists with a Better Business Plan - BusinessWeek