Special report
Security in Gulf Clan Country
The Gulf Clan is the biggest armed group in Colombia. This is how big it is, how it makes its money, and what the new government is doing about it.
Where: Its home ground is Urabá on the Caribbean coast, Córdoba, and Bajo Cauca in Antioquia. Its reach is 296 towns in 17 departments.
1The biggest armed group
The Gulf Clan has about 9,840 members: 3,328 armed, and 6,512 in support networks. It grew 140% from 2022 to 2025, from 4,099 members. In the same years, it went from 145 towns in 13 departments to 296 towns in 17. It's organized like an army, with a joint general staff, six blocs and 39 fronts, and a payroll of about 1.5 million dollars a month.
What it meansThe Gulf Clan more than doubled in size under the last government.
2The money
Its money comes from cocaine, extortion and illegal taxes, and illegal gold mining. It also charged migrants to cross the Darién Gap into Panama, but that business has nearly dried up since 2025. On September 7, the army wrecked 11 dredges at an illegal gold mine in Cáceres, in Bajo Cauca. The mine produced about 5,500 grams of gold a month, worth more than 2,000 million pesos. In July, police captured the leader of the same Gulf Clan unit, alias "Carlos Way," who commanded more than 160 armed men in Tarazá, Cáceres and Caucasia. In Bajo Cauca, miners pay the Gulf Clan 10%, and the ELN has declared those who won't pay it too "military targets."
What it meansGoing after the mines goes after the money that pays its fighters.
3Its leaders are falling
On October 2, the army killed alias "Terry," a Gulf Clan zone leader who ran drugs and extortion in five towns of southwest Antioquia. On October 3, police seized 1,412 kilos of Gulf Clan cocaine in Palmira, Valle. In Sucre, the president named two Gulf Clan leaders, alias "Felipe" and alias "Sebastián," and told them to surrender or be taken down.
What it meansThe new government is going after the Gulf Clan's commanders by name.
4No more peace talks
Petro's government held peace talks with the Gulf Clan in Qatar from September 2025. In May 2026, it agreed to move more than 400 of its members into two holding zones, in Tierralta, Córdoba, and Belén de Bajirá, Chocó, with arrest warrants for 29 of its leaders, Chiquito Malo among them, to be suspended. In September, the new government removed its negotiators. The president: "The so-called Total Peace failed resoundingly in its basic purpose."
What it meansThe last government offered the Gulf Clan's leaders legal protection. The new government is hunting them instead.
5Not the only armed group
On October 5, the president announced the capture of alias "Lobo," second-in-command of Front 36 of Calarcá's dissidents, in rural Valdivia. He's accused of forcing about 2,300 people from 23 rural areas of Briceño to flee in October 2025. In Bajo Cauca, the ELN's Darío Ramírez Castro front fights the Gulf Clan for the miners' money.
What it meansNorthern Antioquia has more than one armed group, and the civilians there pay for it.
The scorecard
Gulf Clan members: 9,840 in 2025, up from 4,099 in 2022. Towns where it operates: 296, in 17 departments. Payroll: about 1.5 million dollars a month. One gold mine in Cáceres: about 5,500 grams of gold a month.
What it meansIt's the biggest armed group in Colombia, with more members than the whole ELN (7,204).
These groups use any space they're given to reset and grow. They need to be crushed, not contained.