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- <text id=90TT2414>
- <title>
- Sep. 10, 1990: Diamonds Are A Don's Best Friend
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1990
- Sep. 10, 1990 Playing Cat And Mouse
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- GRAPEVINE, Page 17
- Diamonds Are a Don's Best Friend
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p>By Paul Gray/Reported by David Ellis
- </p>
- <p> Colombian cocaine cartel leaders are apparently investing
- in precious gems. "Cash is a pain," says a DEA official. "It's
- bulky if you move it, traceable if you bank it, and it mildews
- if you bury it." Which may explain why Colombians have been
- reported buying up jewels--principally diamonds--in
- Antwerp, Amsterdam and Hong Kong. U.S. agents don't think these
- buyers are Christmas shopping. "You can transport millions of
- dollars' worth of diamonds in your back pocket," says an
- investigator. Furthermore, diamonds don't rot when stored in
- the underground caches favored by Colombian dons.
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-
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