Week 4- Trafficking in Illicit Drugs, Guns, and People

CJC 378 Midterm

Mangai Natarajan

Drug Trafficking

International authority on drug trafficking, international crime and justice, and on comparative research on violence against women

Alexis A. Aronowitz

Understanding Trafficking in Human Beings A Human Rights, Public Health, and Criminal Justice Issue

Expert on human trafficking, works closely with United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)

Theodore (Ted) Leggett

Transnational Firearms Trafficking Guns for Crime and Conflict

• Research officer, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)

• Expert on global/transnational organized crime

• Regional expertise in Africa (West Africa)

Drug Trafficking 

• The illegal drug trade has many parts, and trafficking is a key part.

• Trafficking moves drugs from where they are made to where they are used.

Drug Distribution Stages

1. Growing/Producing - the cultivation or manufacturing of illegal drugs. Preparing the soil, harvest

2. Manufacturing - processing and packaging drugs, preparing them for transportation to distribution points.

3. Trafficking - The illicit transport of drugs across borders, using various illegal methods to avoid detection

4. Wholesale Distribution- Bulk distribution of smuggled drugs to different regions or intermediary points

5. Street-level Distribution - Retail level sales directly to consumers

Upper Level Drug Trafficking

Top part of the drug trade, where drugs are produced and distributed internationally before reaching smaller dealers.

• The main source

What are the primary source countries for each drug?

Cocaine : Colombia, Peru, Bolivia

• Large Cartels (“King Pins”) to control the aspect of market 

Heroin (Opium) : Afganistan, Myanmar, and Laos

• Less centralized, as it is more scattered and there is little outside efforts to control it 

Cannabis: Colombia and Jamaica, Morocoo, and Albania (EU)

Synthetics (Meth/MDMA): Netherlands

Middle Level Drug Trafficking

Most dangerous part of the drug trafficking enterprise, sits between big producers & street sellers. 

• Drugs are moved, hidden, stored, and pushed into markets 

• Distribution hubs: To facilitate the movement of drugs to lower-level (street-level) sales. These are set up in regional/Local markets 

• Boats, cargo ships/freighters, ferries, submarines are used to transport illicit drugs overseas

• Legitimate freight cars, trains, cars, and on people are methods used to transport illicit drugs overland

Methods Traffickers have used:

• Narco-Submarine

• Drugs in food

• In people: in hair, wigs, ingested, surgically implanted inside

• Implanted in dangerous species being shipped for research / animals

• Put in furniture

Lower-level Drug trafficking

Final Stage, where drugs meet dealers and consumers

• In the stage where drugs move from “middle-level” to “lower-level”, supllies are divided into “retail quantities”

• These quantities are meant for consumer markers, where individuals are connected to “dealers”

• This is where enforcement typically moves away from international jurisdiction to local law enforcement

Complexities- Factors that make it difficult for Drug trafficking to be stopped and or controlled

1. Scale- The sheet volume of production, massive demand, and huge profits make drug trafficking the most lucrative and complex international crime

2. Multi-level operations- organizations and individuals interacting between and within the different levels make targeting and disruption difficult

3. Covert Strategies - “Pitfalls of Globalization” -globalization makes thi easier as they exploit global connections 

4. Varied Routes - Traffickers are smart and routes with minimal law enforcement and conflict are selected

5. Global Impact and Demand - Smugglers exploit the limited coordination and enforcement to reach an ever-increasing global marker

6. Politics - Crime syndicates have been linked to organized business and to political parties/politicians

Human Trafficking 

Definition from the UN:

Recruitment, Transportation, Transfer, Haboring or receipt of persons - all part of the trafficking enterprise, must also include (the other factors)

• Exploitation has to be the goal to know if whether or not we are dealing with trafficking.

  • Profit can be included later

Smuggling

Criminal enterprise where its goal is “profit”

• Consensual finance agreement: person is voluntarily asking to be smuggled to help cross borders illegally 

What are  the main two things human trafficking is used for?

1. Sexual exploitation

2. Forced Labor 

Process of Human Trafficking

Human trafficking is typically through of as a process that includes three distinct phases:

1. Recruitment: Victims are lured or coerced

2. Transportation: the movement of victims (often across borders)

3. Exploitation: Victims are forced into labor or other forms of exploitation

Forms of Human Trafficking

1. Labor Exploitation

2. Sexual Exploitation

   • forced marriage

3. Child Soldiering

4. Forced Begging - having children go bed and give money to traffickers

5. Organ Harvesting

   • Organ removal

the goal is a sort of financial incentive - exploiting someone for profit or benefit 

Measurement Issue

Gross underreporting as a result of fear, social stigma, and shame

• Victimization is a major problem

• There is no centralized reporting platform

• Most cases occur in developing world

Gender and Age Disparities

• The variations in data fall alongside the “type” of trafficking

• The large demand for commercial sex exploitation makes women and children especially vulnerable

• Children and young adults are vulnerable, but age of consent laws make children a core target

  • The growing demand for child pornography also contributes to targeting disparities

• Men are becoming a growing target for labor exploitation

Women face greater levels of “violence’

• extreme violence associated with trafficking

• Extreme physical violence like battery, and sexual assault like rape

Role of Organized Crime

Human Trafficking has become a “lucrative” business for organized crime syndicates

• A growing “portfolio”: with the growth of drug trafficking routes, criminal organizations have expanded their “supply” to include people

• Organizations tend to own/operate additional intuitions that demand human capital

Child Soldiering

has been a problematic phenomenon for the past 30 years

• Most conflicts today are “civiI wars” or “armed insurgencies”

• These conflicts create extensive refugee crises

• Armed groups seek cheap soldiers

Target Demographics of Trafficking 

• Victims who are targeted often include:

  • People living in poverty

  • Migrants seeking better opportunities

  • Runaways/those experiencing homelessness

  • Children

• In addition to coercion, psychological manipulation can also play a role

  • This expands the types of targets crime syndicates approach beyond youth to those who have been emotionally abused or the socially isolated

Factors contributing to human trafficking

• Rapid population growth

• Persistent economic poverty/hardship

• High unemployment rates

• Internal conflicts

• oppressive political regimes

• corrupt political regimes

• human rights violations

• climate change

The Four P’s of ending Human trafficking

• Prevention: Strategies to prevent trafficking, such as awareness campaigns and addressing root causes

• Prosecution: Legal actions against traffickers and criminal networks

• Protection: Ensuring the safety and support of victims

• Partnerships: Collaboration between governments, NGOs, law enforcement, and other stakeholders

Firearms definition 

Portable barreled weapons that expel or can be converted to expel projectiles through explosive action

• Includes 

  • “handguns” (pistols, revolvers) and “long arms” (rifles, shotguns, assault rifles

  • It can also include “craft weapons” such as those produced by amateurs

Transnational Firearms Trafficking

Illicit trafficking of firearms therefore includes the import, export, acquisition, sale , delivery, movement, or transfer of firearms between countries without proper authorization

True of False : firearms trafficking shares many of the same characteristics as other forms of illicit trafficking

true! 

• there is a clandestine, cross-border movement of these goods

What is the key difference in firearms trafficking compared to other forms of illicit trafficking?

there exists a major, commercial market for firearm sales and transfers that is operated by states as well as by major multinational corporations 

• This opens a new illegal market for false documentation (forgery), fraud and corruption

• Traffickers use fake licenses, forged end-user certificates, or sham sales

True or False: The end of the cold war didn’t leave a lot of firearms

False

• There was a weapon surplus that were no longer needed after the Cold War left over in many countries 

• Think about the end of the Cold War:

  • Disgruntled officials and military officials sough recompense by selling firearms directly to arms dealers

    • or often times just “looked the other way” : ignored sales and let them happen 

Government Sanctioning

• In other instances, governments like the United States will explicit sanction firearms trafficking

• Sometimes governments also “look the other way” when they do not want to be culpable for arming a group whose interests nevertheless align with the state. If the group being armed serves their interests, even if its illegal they will continue it

  • The case of Viktor Bout in Russia, was called “merchant of death” back in the day. (most notorious international arms dealer)

What was Viktor Bouts nickname

“merchant of death”

True or False: the demand for ilicit firearms has increased

False

• The demand for firearms is not increasing as control of conflicts has resulted in a decline 

• However, places that do experience conflict are the most pressed for illicit arm sales 

  • As many major weapon manufactures refuse to do official business, a gray market will find a way anyways, selling it

What is another market for firearms?

Civilian populations across the world.

• The U.S has one of the largest marks for stolen or illicit firearms

  • Hundred of thousands of cases go reported a year that are stolen. More unreported than reported 

Guns for cime

Criminals need to arm themselves and seek illegal firearms to do so 

What is the most priminent type of weapon sold to criminal organizations?

Handguns

What was the data in 2008 about firearms murders and the U.S.?

88% of firearm murders were committed with handguns in the United States

What is the simplest explanation for illicit firearms trafficking?

Surplus supply

• any post-conflict situation demonstrates this (cold war, etc)

• The United States frequently leaves behind arms and munitions

  • Notably after the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq

The Inverse Flow - Drugs and People

Moves from “South to North” from developing countries to developed countries

• Example: Colombia to U.S.

The Inverse Flow - Large Demand Firearms

Moves from “North to South”

• Example: U.S. to Africa 

True or False: There has been a large number in convictions for trafficking crimes

False

• The trend in convictions for trafficking crimes has been negative

Combatting Trafficking

• United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)

• International Law enforcement

• Demand reduction for weapons

• Money Laundering controls

• Cross-border cooperation/between countries