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Illegal gold mining surpasses cocaine as organized crime cash machine
MINING.COM reports soaring gold prices and weaker enforcement are driving criminal groups to favor mining, which authorities say can be laundered close to the mine and routed through legitimate supply chains.
Illicit gold mining has become one of organized crime’s most profitable activities, overtaking cocaine for some groups and raising a growing illicit finance risk for banks, refiners and governments, according to MINING.COM.
The outlet cites Julia Yansura, Program Director for Environmental Crime and Illicit Finance at the FACT Coalition, saying illegal gold is a lower-risk, higher-reward business because it can generate large profits with a lower likelihood of detection or prosecution than the illicit drug trade.
Yansura said the shift reflects a broader diversification of criminal activity away from narcotics toward “whoever markets offer the highest returns with the lowest chance of detection,” including illegal mining, extortion and weapons trafficking.
In Ecuador, authorities have elevated illegal mining in a 2026-2029 National Security Plan, concluding criminal gangs have infiltrated the gold supply chain from extraction to export. MINING.COM says illicit gold can be laundered near the mine with forged paperwork or false identities before entering legitimate markets, and that gold bars face a “hand-carry” reporting gap compared with cash entering or leaving the US.
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