Peru study maps used-clothing chain, says same routes move mercury, weapons, and cocaine

Thrifting and second-hand clothing are often promoted as cheaper, more sustainable alternatives to buying new. However, an investigation focused on Peru suggests that the life of used garments can be tied to a far darker network of smuggling, fraud, and waste.

Here's what to know

According to Just Style , the Institute of Criminology study found that the routes used to bring secondhand clothes into Peru also overlap with channels for illegal mercury, weapons, cocaine, trafficking, smuggling, and pollution from textile waste, including 24 places where discarded clothing ends up as waste. 

Chile is described as South America's main entry point for used apparel. Statistics cited from the Central Bank of Chile show the country imported $143.3 million worth of used clothing in 2023 and took in an average of 136,095 tons a year from 2021 to 2023.

From there, the researchers said much of the merchandise is smuggled onward into Peru through the Chilean and Bolivian borders by means that include cargo trucks, interprovincial buses, private vehicles, and other forms of transport. 

Ricardo Gutiérrez Rojas, president of the National Society of Industries' Commission for Combating Illicit Trade, said, "The study demonstrates that we are not facing an isolated informal trade, but rather an international chain linked to illicit trade, document fraud, corruption, environmental pollution, and dynamics associated with organised crime."

More background

According to the report, crossing the border is only one stage of the operation in Peru. After entry, wholesaler and retailer networks store, sort, and resell the clothing, using digital platforms, social media, and courier services to reach customers in different parts of the country. That arrangement makes enforcement harder.

Nicolás Zevallos, public affairs director at the Institute of Criminology, said this overlap with other illicit markets shows how pollution from textile waste is connected to organized-crime infrastructure.

What's being done?

The Observatory for Combating Illicit Trade's top recommendation is aimed at customs authorities, which it said need advanced risk-management systems supported by digital tools and data intelligence to improve the detection of suspicious shipments and patterns.

The observatory also said authorities should concentrate their efforts on large-scale criminal operations rather than informal market vendors.

"A key finding of our investigation is that in Peru there are no isolated routes for each type of crime," Zevallos said, per Just Style. "There isn't one route exclusively for used clothing, another for illegal gold, and another for drug trafficking. They all share corridors and logistics operators. The same transport that brings in used clothing across the southern border can also bring in illegal mercury, weapons, or be used for human trafficking or cocaine. Logistics operators diversify their criminal activities in a complementary way."

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