Colombia's criminal networks consolidate around two forces

As Mexico's criminal underworld fragments under pressure from the security forces, that of Colombia appears to be consolidating around two opposing criminal networks.

New criminal syndicates are continually forming in Mexico, as the bigger cartels are decapitated and middle ranking leaders step up to form their own organizations. In Colombia, however, the reverse seems to be the case, as the number of major league criminal gangs shrinks. However, the two names that are left standing in Colombia represent not integrated structures, but loose networks.

These two structures, called BACRIMs (criminal bands - "bandas criminales") by the government, are the Rastrojos and the Urabeños. While there are other major players on the drug trafficking criminal scene, they are all in one way or another linked to the Rastrojos or their bitter enemies the Urabeños.

The Rastrojos have their roots in the Norte del Valle Cartel, born in the province of the same name on Colombia's Pacific coast. They are now the biggest players on Colombia's criminal scene, with a presence in at least 12 of the country’s 32 provinces or departments. Led by two brothers, Javier and Luis Enrique Calle Serna, known collectively as the "Comba," they are the dominant organization along the Pacific coast, and have locked down a significant part of the border with Venezuela, the latter now being one of the principal transit nations for Colombian cocaine.

The Calle Serna brothers work with some of the heaviest hitters in the Colombian cocaine industry. The first is Daniel "El Loco" Barrera, one of the U.S.’s most wanted traffickers. Barrera is believed to base himself out of Venezuela, occasionally slipping into Colombia to check on his interests in the Eastern Plains and the capital Bogota, where it is alleged he has high-level penetration into the police force.

The Rastrojos, while they have unchallenged domination of the city of Cali, have long eyed the prize of Medellin. While they have heavy presence in the Antioquia department, of which Medellin is the capital, they had been unable to put down roots in the city. However, they are now supporting one of the two local factions of the Medellin mafia, known as the Oficina de Envigado. Intelligence sources told Insight Crime that the Rastrojos were supplying arms and munitions to the faction of the Oficina led by Erick Vargas Cardenas, alias "Sebastian."

While the Rastrojos have been unable to negotiate a nationwide alliance with Colombia's Marxist guerrillas, who control access to much of the coca crops, which are the raw material for cocaine, they have managed to secure local agreements. In what was the prototype BACRIM-rebel agreement, in 2007, the Rastrojos made an agreement with the National Liberation Army (Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional - ELN), which at the time was engaged in a fratricidal war with the country's biggest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia - FARC). While the ELN sold coca base to the BACRIM, protected their drug laboratories, and escorted shipments down to the Pacific coast, the Rastrojos paid with cash, new weapons, munitions, uniforms and state-of-the-art communications equipment. This allowed the ELN not only to beat back the FARC, but to even take some of their territory.

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