Colombia Drug Lords Rustling Cattle

Latin America’s oldest guerrilla group’s penchant for cattle rustling is robbing Colombian ranchers of the benefits of the highest U.S.-traded futures prices since the 1960s. The cash-strapped Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia is selling livestock at below-market prices after a military crackdown on cocaine production made the fighters “desperate for financing,” Juan Manuel Santos, the nation’s president, said last month. The group, known as FARC, may be Colombia’s biggest cattle owner, according to a ranchers federation. “They can sell at substantially lower prices since the cattle is stolen,” said Diego Ochoa, head of research at brokerage Cia. de Profesionales de Bolsa SA, which manages a livestock fund in Bogota. “They get a profit. For the legal producers and the legal middlemen, prices deteriorate.” Stolen cattle can be sold at a discount of 20 percent to 30 percent, weighing on domestic cattle prices, Ochoa said. Those prices slipped 8.8 percent from June 15 to Jan. 24, according to weekly figures provided by the Bogota-based Colombian Mercantile Exchange...more