Illegal Gold Mining Flourishes Near Colombian Military Posts, New Report Finds

A cartel-linked gold operation within earshot of Colombian military posts exposed a blunt gap between official denials and the reality on the ground. What was visible to reporters was not a rumor or a roadside complaint, but an illicit mining economy operating beside the state’s own security apparatus, a sign that Colombia’s fight against armed groups is still as much about territorial control as it is about narcotics.

The criminal force most closely tied to that economy is the Gulf Clan, also known as Clan del Golfo and Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia. InSight Crime has described it as a dominant criminal organization with national reach, and Colombia’s own policy materials place illegal mining beside drug trafficking, rural governance failures, corruption, and a vulnerable justice system as one of the country’s core security problems. The appeal is simple and brutal: CSIS has said rising gold prices have made mining unusually profitable, with an ounce of gold fetching nearly twice the price of an ounce of cocaine.

That price gap helps explain why armed groups have increasingly treated gold fields as strategic assets. It also explains the violence surrounding Buriticá in Antioquia, where Zijin Mining Group, after acquiring Continental Gold in 2019, later said illegal miners had taken control of about 60% of its mining areas. Reporting in 2024 described tunnels, explosives, heavy machinery, and mercury being used by illegal miners, with environmental damage and geological instability compounding the security threat. A cartel mine near military posts is not a small-scale violation; it suggests that armed groups can operate under protection, in defiance of state authority, or with help from insiders.

What changed after the exposure was the scrutiny, not the underlying logic of the business. The U.S. government has warned that illicitly mined gold can be laundered through legal supply chains and exported abroad, making the trade far more than a local crime. In December 2025, the U.S. Department of State designated Clan del Golfo as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist group, saying cocaine trafficking remained its main source of income. By April 2026, the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá said a new indictment against the group’s leader, Jobanis de Jesus Avila Villadiego, known as Chiquito Malo, underscored the scale and territorial control of the organization.

For Colombia, the deeper problem is not only that illegal gold is being dug up. It is that the enterprise appears to be embedded close enough to military posts to test whether the state can still enforce its own boundaries.