Once confined to Peru and Colombia, the shady business has spread out to neighbouring countries and is generating up to five times more revenue than drug trafficking.
The Fed-inspired drop in the gold price prompted investors to buy a net 5.4 tonnes on Friday, the first increase in holdings by the world's largest gold-backed ETF since November 5.
The US Federal Reserve surprised the market and announced it's throttling its quantitative easing program that has pumped $4 trillion of easy money into the US economy.
