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{{Infobox company
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'''Drummond Company, Inc.''' is a privately owned company based in [[Birmingham, Alabama|Birmingham]], [[Alabama]], United States, involved in the mining and processing of coal and coal products as well as oil and real estate.
==History==
[[Image:IMG 0474.jpg|thumb|right|[[Belt conveyor]] for coal transportation owned and operated by Drummond Company, located between the city of [[Santa Marta]] and the town of [[Ciénaga, Magdalena|Cienaga]] by the [[Caribbean
The company was founded in [[Jasper, Alabama]] in 1935 by [[Heman Edward Drummond]], an Alabama coal miner.<ref name="halloffame">[http://aehof.eng.ua.edu/members/drummond-company-inc/ State of Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame: DRUMMOND COMPANY INC.]</ref><ref name="forbes">[
In 1970, the company signed a contract to sell coal to Japanese steel companies.<ref name="forbesgarry">[
In 1973, [[Garry N. Drummond]], one of the founder's seven children, was appointed as chairman.<ref name="forbes"/> Another son, [[Elbert Allen Drummond|Elbert Allen "Larry" Drummond]] served as vice chairman until his death in 2012.<ref name="larryobitbirminghamnews">[http://obits.al.com/obituaries/birmingham/obituary.aspx?pid=158889469 E.A. "LARRY" DRUMMOND], ''The Birmingham News'', August 1, 2012</ref> During 1979–1980, these Drummond brothers, along with company executive Clyde Black, were indicted for bribing three Alabama legislators, by means of supplying them with prostitutes.<ref name="bloombergmurdersuits">Anthony Effinger, Matthew Bristow, [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-07-16/alabama-billionaire-battles-murder-suits-as-prices-ebb Alabama Billionaire Battles Murder Suits as Prices Ebb], ''Bloomberg Business'', July 16, 2013</ref><ref name="forbesdaniel">Daniel Fisher, [https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielfisher/2014/06/06/alabama-coal-baron-uncovers-evidence-of-witness-payments-in-attack-on-lawyer/ Alabama Coal Baron Uncovers Evidence Of Witness Payments In Attack On Lawyer], ''Forbes'', June 6, 2014</ref><ref name="jurorquestioned">{{cite news|title=Jurors questioned in racketeering trial |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/69476181/?terms=garry%2Bdrummond%2Bprostitutes |newspaper=The Index-Journal (Greenwood, South Carolina) |date=May 8, 1980 |page=25|via = [[Newspapers.com]]|access-date = July 15, 2015 }} {{Open access}}</ref><ref name="probeofcoalcrime">{{cite news|title=Probe of Coal Crime Continues |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/33602234/?terms=garry%2Bdrummond%2Bprostitutes |newspaper=The Index-Journal (Greenwood, South Carolina) |date=July 9, 1980 |page=17|via = [[Newspapers.com]]|access-date = July 15, 2015 }} {{Open access}}</ref> The three-month lawsuit was dismissed by [[Frank Hampton McFadden|Judge Frank McFadden]].<ref name="bloombergmurdersuits"/><ref name="forbesdaniel"/>
In 2003, the company was sued by
In February 2013, journalist Alejandro Arias reported with photographic evidence dumping of hundreds of tons of coal into the [[Caribbean Sea]] by the company a month earlier.<ref name="semana2013">[http://www.semana.com/nacion/articulo/el-periodista-puso-jaque-drummond/332328-3 El periodista que puso en jaque a la Drummond], [[Semana (Colombia)]]
As of December 2013, the company employed a workforce of 6,600, with annual sales of US$3 billion.<ref name="forbes"/> It was inducted into the [[Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame]].<ref name="halloffame"/>
In 2015, the Drummond Company sued attorneys Terrence P. Collingsworth and William R. Scherer, the advocacy group International Rights Advocates (IRAdvocates), and Dutch businessman [[Albert van Bilderbeek]], one of the owners of [[Llanos Oil]], accusing them of violating the [[Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act]] by alleging that Drummond had worked alongside [[Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia]] to murder labor union leaders within proximity of their Colombian coal mines, which Drummond denies.<ref name="alcomkentsued">Kent Faulk, [http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2015/04/drummond_sues_those_claiming_c.html Drummond sues those claiming coal company involved in Colombian deaths], ''The Birmingham News'', April 8, 2015</ref>
In October 2018, David Roberson, previously the company's vice-president of government affairs, was sentenced to "two-and-a-half years in prison, followed by one year of supervised release", and fined $25,000 for his July 2018 convictions, alongside those of attorney Joel Iverson Gilbert (formerly, a partner active in [[Balch & Bingham]]'s Environmental and Natural Resources section), on "six criminal charges each relating to a scheme intended to stop expansion of a toxic cleanup site in Jefferson County by the [[Environmental Protection Agency]]", through a bribe to former basketball player, then state legislator [[Oliver Robinson]] (who was also convicted), through use of his [[nonprofit organization]], The Oliver Robinson Foundation. Roberson maintained that he "trusted Joel" [Gilbert] and "never thought we were bribing Oliver Robinson."<ref>[https://www.al.com/news/birmingham/2018/10/former-balch-lawyer-sentenced-to-federal-prison.html Hrynkiw, Ivana] "Former Drummond V.P. and Balch lawyer sentenced to federal prison", AL.com, Advance Local Media LLC., October 23, 2018. Retrieved October 27, 2018.</ref>
==Assets and operations==
===Coal mines===
===Perry Supply===
The company owns Perry Supply, a subsidiary founded in 1913, which sells "mining, foundry, construction, and industrial supplies."<ref name="drummondperry">
===Foundry coke===
The company also owns Alabama By-Products Corporation, also known as ABC Coke, located in [[Tarrant, Alabama]].<ref name="forbes"/> According to ''Forbes'', it is "the largest single producer of foundry coke in the U.S.."<ref name="forbes"/> Starting 2015, Drummond funneled money though its law firm Balch & Bingham to a retired state legislator [[Oliver Robinson]]. In exchange for over $100,000, Robinson encouraged residents not to cooperate with the [[Environmental Protection Agency|Environmental Protection Agency's]] efforts to list areas of north Birmingham as a [[Superfund]] site due to pollution caused by ABC. In 2017 Robinson pled guilty to various corruption charges.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Whitemore|first1=Kyle|title=Lawmaker under investigation after taking money, fighting Superfund cleanup of toxic neighborhoods|url=http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2017/05/lawmaker_under_investigation_a.html|access-date=31 December 2017|publisher=AL.Com|date=12 May 2017}}</ref>
===Real estate===
The company manages "four luxury planned communities in Alabama, Florida and California."<ref name="forbesgarry"/> In 1985, they developed their first community: Oakbridge in [[Lakeland, Florida]].<ref name="ronnieblaircloseknit"/> Over the years, they developed Liberty Park in [[Vestavia Hills, Alabama]], as well as Rancho La Quinta and Andalusia at Coral Mountain in [[La Quinta, California]].<ref name="halloffame"/>
== Alleged Involvement with Murder of Union Leaders ==
Drummond has been accused of contracting paramilitaries since 2001 to murder union leaders who oppose company mining policies.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |date=2007-07-12 |title=Drummond coal goes on trial over Colombia killings |language=en |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/businesspro-colombia-drummond-usa-dc-idUSN1140778020070712 |access-date=2022-04-13}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=3 Union Leaders Were Shot Dead and Colombia Says an American Company Financed their Killers |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/88n97g/3-union-leaders-were-shot-dead-and-colombia-says-an-american-company-financed-their-killers |access-date=2022-04-13 |website=www.vice.com |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |agency=Associated Press |date=2018-10-30 |title=Colombia: Drummond possibly involved in union leaders' deaths |url=https://www.al.com/news/2018/10/colombia-investigating-drummonds-possible-involvement-in-union-leaders-deaths.html |access-date=2022-04-13 |website=al |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=CASE STUDY: Paramilitary violence allegedly contracted by Drummond in Colombia |url=https://www.mindthegap.ngo/harmful-strategies/undermining-defenders-communities/attacking-human-rights-defenders/paramilitary-violence-allegedly-contracted-by-drummond-in-colombia/ |access-date=2022-04-13 |website=Mind the Gap |language=en-GB}}</ref> In 2000, the local branch of Sintramienergetica, the union that represents hundreds of Drummond workers, held several meetings with executives about contract negotiations and safety concerns.<ref name=":1" /> That summer, four mine workers had been killed in a landslide, so workplace safety was an issue. They were also dissatisfied with the food served at the company cafeteria, where the workers ate almost all their meals. For example, workers would allegedly find rocks in the rice. Union members also say that staff at the cafeteria were armed and they felt this was unnecessary and unsafe. Union leaders Valmore Locarno and Victor Orcasita began to receive death threats. They asked Drummond for housing at the mine, so they wouldn't have to commute through areas controlled by paramilitaries. According to the testimony of former president of Drummond Augusto Jimenez, Drummond denied their housing request and Colombia's intelligence agency ([[Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad]], or DAS by its Spanish initials) determined that the threat against them was of “medium to low risk” and did not grant the union leaders any security.<ref name=":1" /> About a month later, paramilitaries stopped a company bus carrying union leaders Valmore Locarno and Victor Orcasita and other workers from the La Loma mine at the end of a shift on March 12, 2001. Locarno was shot in the head and Orcasita was tortured and killed. A third union leader, Gustavo Soler, replaced Locarno and was found dead in October.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":3" />
Drummond strongly denies the allegations.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /> A crew supervisor told an Alabama court in that 2007 case that managers at Drummond's mine, including Locarno's supervisor “said the union and the guerrillas were pretty much one and the same and also that they were responsible for the sabotage of the rail lines.”<ref name=":1" /> Drummond's chief of security at the time, former CIA agent Jim Adkins, also believed there was a connection. In an interview with VICE World News in January 2021, Adkins said he still believes the attacks were connected to the tensions in negotiations between the union and the company. “The negotiations would break down and all of a sudden we would get a train blown up,” said Adkins, who believes that the guerrilla groups were enforcing the interests of the union, but declined to provide any proof. However, witnesses claim to have been present in a meeting where a list of names of trade union leaders was produced to be given to a paramilitary commander.<ref name=":3" />
In December 2020, the office of Colombia's attorney general charged two executives from the American coal company Drummond Company Inc. with financing and promoting the paramilitary group that killed these union leaders. The executives, former president of Drummond Augusto Jimenez and current president Jose Miguel Linares, are accused of financing the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), which was the country's largest and deadliest paramilitary group in the decades long civil war in Colombia, during which paramilitaries and the government clashed with leftwing guerrillas.<ref name=":1" /> However, U.S. courts have repeatedly ruled against the families of the Colombian victims.<ref name=":2" />
==See also==
*[[Birmingham District]]
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
*[[Historic American Engineering Record]] (HAER) documentation:
**{{HAER |survey=AL-19 |id=al0916 |title=Alabama By-Products Company, Coke Plant, Tarrant City, Jefferson County, AL |photos=3 |data=4 |cap=1 |link=no}}
**{{HAER |survey=AL-44-A |id=al1156 |title=Drummond Coal Company Cedrum Mine, 8750 Pit, Townley, Walker County, AL |photos=9 |cap=1 |link=no}}
**{{HAER |survey=AL-44-B |id=al1157 |title=Drummond Coal Company Cedrum Mine, Crushing Facility, Townley, Walker County, AL |photos=1 |cap=1 |link=no}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Drummond Company}}
[[Category:Companies based in Birmingham, Alabama]]▼
[[Category:Coal companies of the United States]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Drummond family (Alabama)| ]]
[[Category:Historic American Engineering Record in Alabama]]
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