Armed groups have established complex smuggling networks for coltan (known as "blue gold") between Venezuela and Colombia, with the ELN and FARC dissidents controlling key river corridors in Guainía. Colombian authorities have made significant seizures, including 5 tons concealed in sand bags on the Guaviare River in March and 1.2 tons in Vichada valued at US$130,000 in July 2024. The mineral, crucial for electronics manufacturing, is primarily extracted from Venezuela's Orinoco Mining Arc and areas like Agua Mena-Parguaza in Bolívar state, where local communities mine it before selling to Colombian guerrillas at below-market rates. Venezuelan military officers allegedly facilitate the trafficking, with a kg fetching US$350-650 locally but ten times more internationally. Though Venezuela has made legal exports (5 tons to Italy valued at US$350,000 in 2018, for example), US sanctions in 2019 pushed most operations underground, with Italian authorities later seizing Venezuelan coltan arriving via Colombia's Cartagena port amid allegations of involvement by President Maduro's son, Nicolás Maduro Guerra, who was sanctioned by the US on corruption charges related to mineral exploitation.