FARC’s Cocaine Sales to Mexico Cartels Prove Too Rich to Subdue

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aQfKk3ykBBes&pos=14

The pact to bypass middlemen has given Reyes’s group, known as the FARC, an opportunity to double its profit by selling directly to the Mexican cartel, said the government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The FARC earned at least $1 billion and maybe several times that amount in the past year, according to officials familiar with the group. The arrangement has strengthened the cartels at a time when they are under pressure from an offensive ordered by Mexican President Felipe Calderon, the Colombian official said.