Colombia's extortion industry nets $1.1B annually: Report .
Colombia's extortion industry nets $1.1B annually: Report .
Wednesday, 20 March 2013 10:13 Benjy Hansen-Bundy
Extortion of businesses and individuals claims an estimated $1.1 billion annually, though the real income could be much higher, reported newspaper El Tiempo Wednesday.
An extensive investigation by the newspaper revealed the pervasiveness of the problem, and its increase in recent years. The number of reported extortion cases jumped 229% in the last four years, from 830 to 2,316.
However, unreported cases could easily exceed 10,000, considering that the police admit to prosecuting just one in five extortion cases.
Common criminals authored 83% of those cases, though many claimed an allegiance to a larger criminal network to scare their victims, whether or not such a link existed. The FARC account for 9% of extortion. Drug trafficking organizations like the Rastrojos and Urabeños claim just 6%.
More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/28615-colombia-extortion-2012.html