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The illegal traffic handsomely rewards participants at all levels. One miner who began a small illegal operation ten years ago now owns two ranches with 3,000 head of cattle, plus ten houses and other real estate in downtown Bogotá. The esmeralderos, however, run a major risk—not of being apprehended by the government, but of being gunned down by one another. Any dispute between a squad chief and his miners over the division of the take is settled by what Colombians call "Smith & Wesson's Rules of Order" (a Smith & Wesson .38-cal. revolver is the esmeraldero's favorite weapon). The buying families regularly bushwhack one another's caravans, and the victimized family then exacts blood vengeance; one feud between the Gonzáles and Aviia families has taken 13 lives since last September. The total number of murders in the emerald trade is unknown, since many bodies simply disappear down mountain gorges, but a minimum estimate is 200 a year.
Seeded by God. Officials of Ecominas, the state mining agency, talk vaguely of legalizing private mining operations by contracting with them to dig emeralds, and of sending their own agents into the mountains to buy emeralds for a central exchange to be set up in Bogotá. It seems unlikely that such measures would stop the smuggling. Foreign buyers show little concern for the origin of their emeralds. The esmeralderos are confident that they can buy off or kill anyone who tries to interfere. Nor do they show any moral qualms about their operation. Says one: "The Muzo Indians had already found the gems when the Spaniards arrived. Thus we don't accept that they belong to the government. We believe that they were seeded by God for the benefit of all Colombians."