BACRIM

The bandas criminales (BACRIM) are Colombian criminal groups descended from drug-trafficking paramilitary groups like the AUC, which disbanded in 2006. President Alvaro Uribe created th eterm BACRIM to designate any drug trafficking organizations that remained following the AUC's demobilization. While all but one of the BACRIM had their roots in the AUC, Los Rastrojos originated as the military wing of the Norte del Valle Cartel. The BACRIM are the third generation of Colombian drug cartels, following the centralized first generation (i.e. the Medellin Cartel and the Cali Cartel) and the "baby cartels" of the Norte del Valle Cartel and the AUC (federations of drug traffickers without singular leaders). The BACRIM currently deliver cocaine shipments destined for US markets to Mexican drug cartels, usually in Central American countries like Honduras.

After the fragmentation of the drug trade and the downfall of the Medellin and Cali cartels, the AUC became the principal regulator of Colombia's drug trade. The heavily-armed AUC, which had institutional links to the military and elements of the police force on the payroll, became the "law" in Colombia's underworld, and many narcos joined the AUC umbrella, while many paramilitary commanders went from serving as protection to becoming drug traffickers in their own right. The BACRIM came to have territorial control and controlled movement corridors across the country.

The BACRIM operated like franchises, consisting of many different nodes operating under the same umbrella while being dedicated to different activities. In the case of the Clan del Golfo, leader Dario Antonio Usuga lacked direct control over a majority of his organization, instead heading the command node, while regional lieutenants controlled certaint erritories and subcontracted criminal groups like oficinas de cobro and combos were hired to carry out specific tasks for the Clan del Golfo. BACRIM organizations expanded based on their ability to persuade oficinas de cobro across Colombia and abroad to become affiliated with the franchise and provide services to the network, as experienced by Los Rastrojos after 2006, as the gang made agreements with oficinas formerly part of the AUC. In Barrancabermeja, oficinas de cobro rapidly switched allegiance from the AUC to the Aguilas Negras, Los Rastrojos, and the Clan del Golfo. In many places, the BACRIM share the paramilitaries' nickname of paracos, but, while the AUC often carried out highly-visible patrols and had a professed anti-subversive ideology backed by a third of Colombia's congress, the BACRIM lurked in the shadows and donned civilian clothing and small arms. The BACRIM's commanders were faceless and hidedn, and, while they backed candidates in the 2014 elections, they did so for protection rather than for a political program. The BACRIM also lacked the military capability to ake on the criminals, as they did not have the same military training that the AUC once boasted. The BACRIM instead used sicarios as ttheir military wing, and, if they clashed witht he guerrillas, it was over coca crops and other resources.

BACRIM's violence often targets unionists, land restitution activists, and anti-business social movements, as the BACRIM are utilized by business and criminal interests to terrorize or eliminate opponents.

Colombian organized crime hierarchy (from Insight Crime)[]

Type of criminal organization	Structure	Geography	Criminal Activities	Capacity for violence	Penetration/corruption of state
Pandilla	Mostly street gangs, with four members or more dedicated to criminal activity	Usually several city blocks, with the strongest perhaps controlling a neighborhood	Muggings, burglary, micro-extortion, local drug dealing	Most gang members will have access to some basic weaponry, but little training or planning capability	Limited, perhaps some local policemen who will take bribes to ignore criminal activity
Combo/banda	Could be made up of several pandillas or one or more groups specialized in a particular criminal activity. These groups can also supply services to more sophisticated criminal groups.	Often have city neighborhoods as strongholds, but criminal activity could be spread across a wider area. Usually based in one municipality.	Specialized criminal activities like car theft, but also extortion and local drug dealing.	Likely to have more discipline than the street gangs and access to better weaponry.	May have members who have served in the police or army and have some basic military skills.
Oficina de cobro	This is a sophisticated criminal structure with different components and a wider range of criminal activities. It has its own armed wing capable of carrying out assassinations and armed actions. It also has a dedicated money laundering capability. Oficinas almost always have links to drug trafficking and provide services to transnational criminal organizations as well as BACRIM.	Oficinas can be rural as well as urban, and can call upon the services of affiliated pandillas and combos. An oficina at its most basic level will control a city district or rural area, while the most sophisticated control entire cities. They can have a presence in more than one municipality	Extortion, kidnappings, debt collection, administration of local justice, micro-trafficking, sicarios (hired assassin) services, prostitution, gambling, money laundering; can provide services related to some links in the drug trafficking chain (laboratories, access to drug crops etc)	An oficina will have its own group of sicarios. These will have basic weapons training and the ability to plan assassinations and armed actions. Usually have access to sophisticated weaponry, certainly assault rifles. Often have knowledge of explosives and can rig car bombs and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).	Can penetrate police and army units at the highest levels. Some oficinas have had local police chiefs on the payroll. Also can influence local politics and get members of the judiciary and judges on their side.
BACRIM	This is a criminal structure capable of transnational criminal activity and able to provide a wide variety of services to drug traffickers. It consists of several different cells spread across a wide geographical area, with several armed components, personnel dedicated to paying off state functionaries, money laundering capabilities and the ability to carry out, or subcontract, a wide array of criminal activities. It is a criminal network rather than a hierarchical, integrated organization.	Usually has a presence in several departments. The weakest BACRIM have a regional presence; the strongest have a national reach and the ability to operate across the country. Many BACRIM also have cells in foreign countries capable of moving shipments and laundering money.	Drug trafficking, illegal gold mining, kidnapping, extortion, arms trafficking, providing services for all links of the drug chain in-country (purchase coca base, process cocaine, move shipments within country) and may also be able to engage in transnational transport of drug shipments.	Can call upon highly trained and well armed units, often made up of former members of the security forces. These units are able to carry out conventional military actions, have specialized weaponry and explosives skills. Some BACRIM can carry out these operations internationally.	Can penetrate the state at a regional and even national level. Have the ability to corrupt high level officials in the security forces, local, regional and national government, the Attorney General’s Office, the judiciary and customs