Organized crime is among top 20 world economies, reports United Nations agency

$10 billion dirty money washed every year in Mexico, $39 billion in the United States

Organized crime in all countries generates about $2.1 trillion USD in annual earnings, a sum equal to 3.6% of the world's entire gross domestic product (producto interno bruto), according to a report published yesterday by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

"Organized crime is becoming one of the world's biggest businesses, one of its top 20 economies," said a U.N. official in charge of the Office.

The UNODC document claims that developing nations lose $40 billion annually due to bribery, extortion and illegal payments, and that criminal organizations earn $32 billion annually from human trafficking, which the Office says affects millions of people a year. The report is based on data compiled through 2009.

In September the United Nations reported that about 5% of Latin America's entire gross domestic product is devoted to combating crime and internal threats, most of which are posed by narcotics traffickers and those working in collateral criminal enterprises.

Earlier this month Mexico's tax collection and budget planning office, the Secretaría de Hacienda, reported that in 2011 at least $10 billion in proceeds from illegal activities was laundered domestically, the majority of it by drug cartels. The study was commissioned by the nation's lower legislative body, the Cámara de Diputados, which said that 41% of the dirty money came from drug sales, 33% from human trafficking; 20% from pirated goods and 6% from other types of fraud.

U.S. officials have said that drug traffickers launder almost four times that amount annually through the American banking system. $39 billion washed every year in U.S. by drug traffickers: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2011/10/39-billion-usd-all-of-it-dirty-money-is.html.

Drug wars and violence exact huge economic and social costs in Latin America: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2011/09/drug-wars-violence-exact-huge-economic.html.
More evidence Mexican drug war strategy is working, but violence shifts south: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2012/02/more-evidence-mexican-drug-war-strategy.html.
Honduras "invaded by drug traffickers": http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2011/12/honduras-invaded-by-drug-traffickers.html.
"Almost bankrupt" Guatemala calls for U.S. help: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2012/01/almost-bankrupt-guatemala-calls-upon-us.html.
Guatemalan army joins drug war: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2012/01/guatemalan-army-joins-drug-war-we-have.html.
Increasing poverty, rising state debt result in poor economic report for Mexico: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2012/02/increase-in-state-indebtedness-poverty.html.