The World's Most Lucrative Criminal Activities: CNBC

The World's Most Lucrative Criminal Activities
Colombian drug trafficker Daniel Barrera (C) aka 'El Loco' is escorted by policemen before being deported to the United States at the Antinarcotics Police Airport on July 9, 2013 in Bogota. Barrera is considered as Colombias most important drug lord of the past decade. AFP PHOTO/LUIS ACOSTA (Photo credit should read LUIS ACOSTA/AFP/Getty Images)
Colombian drug trafficker Daniel Barrera (C) aka 'El Loco' is escorted by policemen before being deported to the United States at the Antinarcotics Police Airport on July 9, 2013 in Bogota. Barrera is considered as Colombias most important drug lord of the past decade. AFP PHOTO/LUIS ACOSTA (Photo credit should read LUIS ACOSTA/AFP/Getty Images)

Cross-border organized crime is big business, worth about $2.1 trillion per year, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNDOC), equivalent to 3.5 percent of world GDP in 2009. That's more than six times the world's development aid budget for that year, and equivalent to about 7 percent of global exports of merchandise.

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