11 hours ago
Soaring Gold Prices Draw Illicit Miners—and Armed Gangs—to Colombia's Jungles
PUERTO CLAVER, Colombia—The lure of even a few specks of gold compels Elizabeth Mosquera awake before dawn to slog to a muddy pit, where she wades into waist-deep water and starts to pan. 'What you earn in a month in a regular job, you can make here in an hour or two,' said Mosquera, 47 years old. In Colombia, the prospecting economy is driving revenue to drug-trafficking organizations that are already awash in proceeds from the record supplies of cocaine they are exporting to the U.S. and Europe, law-enforcement officials said.
