Diamond Smuggling Market Value: $280 Million
The ” blood diamond” market, or diamonds smuggled and trafficked for illicit products, is estimated to amount up to 4 percent of the $7 billion global diamond market.
Source: Douglas Farah, Blood From Stones (New York: Broadway Books, 2004), pg. 4.
$23 million of diamonds smuggled out of Ivory Coast each year
Source: Partnership Africa Canada, “Killing Kimberley? Conflict Diamonds and Paper Tigers”, The Diamonds and Human Security Project, Revised Edition, November 2006,pg.5,(accessed: November 13, 2006).
20 percent of Sierra Leone’s diamonds were being smuggled out of the country in 2005
Source: Tristan McConnell, “Fighting diamond smuggling in Africa,” Christian Science Monitor, July 30, 2007,(accessed: July 31, 2007).
99.8 percent of world’s diamonds are being certified as legitimate
Officials from Botswana, the world’s biggest producer of high-quality minerals, reported to participants of the Kimberley Process that 99.8 percent of the world’s diamonds are being certified as legitimate.
Source: Moabi Phia, “Watchdog urged to crack down on Cote d’Ivoire,” Mail & Guardian Online, November 6, 2006,(accessed: November 13, 2006).
Venezuele has officially exported 0 diamonds
Although Venezuela is estimated to produce 150,000 carets of diamonds annually, it has officially exported none since 2005.
Source: Partnership Africa Canada, “The Lost World: Diamond Mining and Smuggling in Venezuela,” November 2006, pg. 1,(accessed: October 9, 2007).
In 1990s, up to 25 percent of diamonds were illicit
In the 1990s, it was estimated that as much as 25 percent of the world’s diamonds were in some way illicit (used for money laundering, tax evasion, purchasing drugs, weapons and other goods, or were stolen).
Source: “Killing Kimberley? Conflict Diamonds and Paper Tigers”, The Diamonds and Human Security Project, Revised Edition, November 2006,pg.3,(accessed: November 13, [...]
Why diamonds are a great contraband product
Author Larry Kahaner reported on the value of diamonds as an illicit product. Kahaner stated that “Diamonds and other gemstones are perfect for moving wealth around they are small, hold their value, and are universally acceptable as barter, don’t set off airport metal detectors, and can easily be converted to cash.”
Source: Larry Kahaner, AK-47: The [...]
