Authorities are also looking into the possible involvement of Republic Metals Corp., a refiner in Miami known as RMC, Ortega said. The Attorney General’s office didn’t respond to questions about RMC’s alleged purchases of contraband gold.
RMC closed all accounts with Goldex and related entities last year after raising suspicions “in accordance with its stringent and proactive compliance program,” the company said in an e-mailed response to questions. Goldex said its business with RMC was put on hold by mutual agreement while a certification process was concluded.
Colombia exported 58 metric tons of gold last year and 77 tons in 2012, according to the statistics agency. More than half of that may have been smuggled into the country and booked as local production, with last year’s 28 percent gold price decline tempering illegal activity this year, Ortega said.
Gold is smuggled into the Colombian jungle town of Inirida in small quantities by river from Venezuela, as well as by sea from Panama, Ortega said. A seizure in the city of Bucaramanga several years ago revealed bars stamped by Mexico, he said.
The U.S. DEA’s policy is to neither confirm nor deny any ongoing investigation, Mia Ro, a media relations officer, said when asked if the DEA is collaborating with the investigation.
Rebel Group
Colombia’s Los Urabenos gang and Hernan Dario Velasquez, alias El Paisa, a commander in Colombia’s largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, are among traffickers using gold to launder cocaine profit, Ortega said.
Colombian authorities say El Paisa was the architect of the 2003 bombing of Bogota’s Club El Nogal that left 36 people dead. Illegal gold mining is a key source of revenue for the FARC, together with returns from the cocaine industry, according to Colombia’s rural police.
As well as implementing programs to regulate the informal mining sector, the government is in talks with the FARC in Havana in a bid to end the country’s five-decade civil war. The two sides reached an agreement on tackling illicit drugs on May 16, with three points on the six-point agenda still outstanding.