Proposed Initiatives to Combat Cross-Border Drug Trafficking

2019 ◽  
pp. 147-168
Author(s):  
Hai Thanh Luong
Keyword(s):  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
Cross Border

scholarly journals Interdicting International Drug Trafficking: a Network Approach for Coordinated and Targeted Interventions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Giommoni ◽  
Giulia Berlusconi ◽  
Alberto Aziani
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
Network Approach ◽  
Targeted Interventions ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Edge Betweenness ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Social Network Approach ◽  
The Impact ◽  
International Trafficking

AbstractThere is a relative dearth of literature on both the effects of cross-border interdictions and the impact of different types of interventions on international drug trafficking. This study identifies the main trafficking routes for cocaine and heroin, along with comparing the disruptive effects induced by targeted and non-coordinated interventions. It adopts a social network approach to identify the routes along which cocaine and heroin are trafficked, and then simulates the impact of different interdiction strategies on these two trafficking networks. The findings indicate that targeting countries based on their respective positions in the networks, as opposed to on the basis of the quantity of drugs exchanged, is more likely to disrupt drug flows. More specifically, concentrating law enforcement resources on countries with several incoming or outgoing trafficking connections, or those countries that mediate between producer, transit and consumer countries, would appear to be particularly effective in this regard. Interventions focused on specific trafficking routes are also likely to be effective if these routes have high edge betweenness centrality scores. This study contributes to extant understanding on the vulnerability of cocaine and heroin international trafficking networks, and, moreover, demonstrates that empirically-driven strategies are potentially more effective at interdicting international trafficking than non-strategic and non-coordinated interventions.

scholarly journals Border Residents and Cross border Crimes in Ghana: An Empirical Study of Aflao

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (06) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dr. Ishmael K. Hlovor
Keyword(s):  
Human Trafficking ◽  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
Field Survey ◽  
Coping Mechanisms ◽  
Armed Robbery ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Livelihood Options ◽  
Border Town ◽  
Eastern Border ◽  
Border Areas

Border residents have been noted for their involvement in goods smuggling and other illegal cross border exchanges as coping mechanisms for poverty and unemployment. This study assesses the veracity of this claim through a field survey of the eastern border town of Aflao. The result of the study shows that challenges of poverty and unemployment have forced border residents to exploit their location in the border space as coping strategy by engaging in officially proscribed activities. These activities involve crimes such as goods smuggling, smuggling facilitation, armed robbery and petty stealing, drug trafficking, human trafficking and arms trafficking. While border residents are likely to see some of these activities (armed robbery and petty stealing, drug trafficking, human trafficking and arms trafficking) as crimes, they would normally accept that goods smuggling and aiding smuggling are not crimes because they serve as livelihood options, which contribute to reducing unemployment and poverty in border areas. To be effective, border management has to be comprehensive and incorporate the livelihood needs of Borderlanders.

Bilateral Diplomacy: Rethinking the Jamaica-US Shiprider Agreement

2008 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 253-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzette Haughton
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
The United States ◽  
Negotiation Process ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Vienna Convention ◽  
Implementation Phase ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Complex Interdependence ◽  
Interdependence Theory

AbstractThe Shiprider Agreement — an important aspect of Jamaica-US bilateral diplomacy — represents the strength of diplomatic engagements that have been used to address the cross-border drug-trafficking problem. To substantiate this claim, this article examines the Jamaica-US Shiprider Agreement on three criteria.First, examining some examples of counter-drug cooperation before the Shiprider Agreement demonstrates that the fundamental basis for the Agreement is premised on a positive Jamaica-US relationship. This relationship, along with the stipulated obligations enshrined in the 1988 Vienna Convention, impelled the United States' proposal of the Shiprider Agreement. Second, the article uses complex interdependence theory to test the negotiation process and the outcome of the Agreement. Findings demonstrate that complex interdependence mainly confirms explanations of the foreign policy outcomes and diplomatic conduct displayed in the Jamaica-US Shiprider case. Finally, the article assesses the breakdown in the negotiation process and the initial implementation phase of the Agreement, arguing that this breakdown must be seen in context given the Agreement's successful ratification and its non-controversial continuation. The article concludes that despite the instances of breakdown, the birth and provision of the judicious Jamaica-US Shiprider Agreement owed much to the success of diplomacy.

Afghanistan 2014: Shadows over Central Asia?

2013 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uwe Halbach
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
Silk Road ◽  
Specific Reference ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Central Asian

How will the withdrawal of ISAF forces from Afghanistan in 2014 affect the states of Central Asia and other parties with interests in the region? What will the effect be on economic interests (the “New Silk Road”) and will risks such as drug trafficking and cross-border terrorism increase? This paper considers these questions with specific reference to the Afghanistan policies of the Central Asian states.

scholarly journals How Do Illicit Drugs Move Across Countries? A Network Analysis of the Heroin Supply to Europe

2016 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Giommoni ◽  
Alberto Aziani ◽  
Giulia Berlusconi
Keyword(s):  
Network Analysis ◽  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
Illicit Drugs ◽  
Geographical Proximity ◽  
Critical Component ◽  
Network Approach ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Contradictory Evidence ◽  
Specific Factors

Illicit drugs are trafficked across manifold borders before ultimately reaching consumers. Consequently, interdiction of cross-border drug trafficking forms a critical component of the European Union’s initiative to reduce drug supplies. However, there is contradictory evidence about its effectiveness, which is due, in part, to a paucity of information about how drugs flow across borders. This study uses a network approach to analyze international drug trafficking both to and within Europe, drawing on several perspectives to delineate the factors that affect how drug shipments move across borders. The analysis explicates how drug trafficking is concentrated along specific routes; moreover, we demonstrate that its structure is not random but, rather, driven by specific factors. In particular, corruption and social and geographical proximity are key factors explaining the configuration of heroin supply to European countries. This study also provides essential insights into the disruption of traffickers’ illicit activities.

scholarly journals U.S. Arrest of Former Mexican Defense Minister on Drug Charges Poses Challenges for Future Counter-Narcotics Cooperation

2021 ◽  
Vol 115 (2) ◽  
pp. 334-340
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
The United States ◽  
Secretary General ◽  
Legal Assistance ◽  
Mutual Legal Assistance ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
The U.S

In October 2020, the United States arrested former Mexican Defense Secretary General Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda on drug conspiracy charges, accusing him of accepting bribes to aid a Mexican cartel in evading law enforcement and transporting drugs into the United States. Cienfuegos's arrest sparked diplomatic protests from Mexico, which negotiated to gain Cienfuegos's release before exonerating him and publicizing the U.S. investigation file in what the United States called a breach of the countries’ mutual legal assistance treaty. The incident also prompted Mexico to pass a new law curtailing cooperation with foreign agents and potentially imperiling the long-standing U.S.-Mexico alliance in the fight against cross-border drug trafficking.

scholarly journals Militarism and its limits: Sociological insights on security assemblages in the Sahel

2018 ◽  
Vol 49 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 70-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philippe M Frowd ◽  
Adam J Sandor
Keyword(s):  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
Symbolic Violence ◽  
Irregular Migration ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
French Military ◽  
Military Violence ◽  
Security Practices ◽  
Illicit Flows ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
Global And Local

This article assesses the concepts of militarism and militarization in relation to contemporary security interventions in the Sahel, a region increasingly understood through the prisms of violence, cross-border illicit flows, and limited statehood. This region is subject to security interventions that include French military action, EU-funded projects to prevent drug trafficking, and both bilateral and multilateral efforts against irregular migration. To many observers, it is experiencing an ongoing militarization. We argue that while the inextricable concepts of militarism and militarization go some way towards explaining interventions’ occasional use of military violence, they are limited in their grasp of the non-martial and symbolic violence in security practices. We instead propose a focus on assemblages of (in)security to show the heterogeneous mix of global and local actors, and often contradictory rationalities and practices that shape the logics of symbolic and martial violence in the region. Throughout, the article draws on the authors’ fieldwork in Mauritania, Senegal, and Niger, and includes two case studies on efforts against the Sahel’s ‘crime–terror nexus’ and to control irregular migration through the region. The article’s contribution is to better situate debates about militarism and militarization in relation to (in)security and to provide a more granular understanding of the Sahel’s security politics.

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