Estimating the Financial Flows in Peru’s Cocaine Economy
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Abstract
The cocaine production and trade in Peru are key topics on the research agenda on illegal economies. This article provides a conservative estimate of the monetary flow mobilized along the cocaine market’s supply chain in Peru, based on arithmetic calculations derived mainly from data provided by the Comisión Nacional para una Vida sin Drogas, the Dirección contra las Drogas de la Policía Nacional del Perú, and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Ten monetary transactions were identified, with a gross income of USD 1,889 from the final sale of cocaine, while the total gross value of transactions across the production chain would amount to more than USD 5.414 billion. These figures suggest that the illicit economy circulates greater financial resources than those allocated by the State to its control institutions.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Jaris Mujica, Christian Campos Vásquez, Nicolás Zevallos
CC BY-NC-SA. This license allows sharing, copying, distributing, performing, and publicly communicating the work, as well as creating derivative works.
Author Biographies
Jaris Mujica (Instituto de Criminología y Estudios sobre la Violencia)
Criminologist, Master’s degree in Political Science, and a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. He completed Master’s and PhD studies in Criminal Enforcement at Universidad Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona). He has served as a commissioner in the Anti-Corruption Unit of the Defensoría del Pueblo, Head of the Oficina de Asuntos Internos del Sistema Penitenciario del Perú, Head of the Information Unit of the Office of the Procuraduría, and as a researcher in various offices of the United Nations system and international cooperation agencies. He is a researcher specialized in applied research methods. He has published more than 30 scientific articles and 14 books, and has received over 20 research awards.
(Instituto de Criminología y Estudios sobre la Violencia)
Criminologist specialized in organized crime, urban crime, and police studies. He has participated in, advised, and led approximately fifty research and management projects aimed at crime control in public institutions and international agencies. He has served as a senior executive in state entities related to crime control. He teaches Research Methodology and Criminology, and is the author of approximately fifty academic publications in his areas of specialization. He is the founder and Director of Public Affairs of the Instituto de Criminología y Estudios sobre la Violencia.
Christian Campos Vásquez (Instituto de Criminología y Estudios sobre la Violencia)
Political scientist from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, with a Master’s degree in Methods and Techniques of Social Research from the Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales (CLACSO), and specialized in Applied Criminology and the Comprehensive Management of Citizen Security Policies. He has formed high-level advisory teams and knowledge management analysis units in institutions such as the Ministerio del Interior, the Centro de Altos Estudios Nacionales del Perú, and Anti-Trafficking Peru. He has participated in more than 40 applied research, technical assistance, and consultancy projects on criminal phenomena and crime control for public and private entities. He is the author of around ten publications on organized crime and illegal economies. Associate researcher and lecturer at the Instituto de Criminología y Estudios sobre la Violencia.
