Ephemeral Infrastructures of Drug Smuggling Mobilities

The study of drug smuggling has often taken an organizational perspective whereby the structures of how smuggling is constituted predominate. Building on a growing body of scholarship addressing the networked complexities of drug smuggling this article considers the importance of distinct infrastructural arrangements. Its primary focus is on the materiality of drug smuggling infrastructures, and how the social, spatial and temporal qualities of these configurations overlap with licit mobility infrastructures, including intersections of visibility/invisibility, stability, and permanence. The core conceptual premise, drawn from Science and Technology Studies, is that drug smuggling mobilities are formed of ephemeral infrastructures that exhibit temporary, short-lived stability and permanence through the subversion of licit infrastructural configurations. Drawing on material from El Dorado Airport, Colombia, the paper examines the everyday artefacts which constitute these ephemeral infrastructures.

State role will entrench Syrian-Lebanese drugs trade

Significance Key to the new pattern is the increased association of state and state-linked actors with the trade in narcotics, primarily Captagon and hashish. The new environment creates risks around larger shipments, changing drug formulas and Europe becoming a destination market. Impacts Drug smuggling is likely to undercut and subvert the impact of US and EU sanctions. The key state-linked actors involved in drug smuggling are likely to support Iranian proxy influence in the Levant. The Gulf market, in particular, will see a rising health challenge from potentially dangerous Captagon substitutes.

Comparative Analysis of the United States’ War on Drugs Policy in Mexico and Colombia: Failure and Success Factors

Drug smuggling activities in the United States carried out by drug cartels from Mexico and Colombia contribute to the region's instabilities. Many threats and terrorist acts that accompanied the distribution of illegal drugs left civilians in fear. The War on Drugs policy promoted by the United States, which aims to apprehend drug cartels, causes severe losses in the long run. Colombia is the only successful case. On the other hand, Mexico offers a different story despite both are countries with unstable political and weak law enforcement. The paper conducts a comparative study on Colombia and Mexico to evaluate the factors that contribute to the success and failure behind the implementation of the War on Drugs policy. The paper concludes that an aggressive approach (i.e., military) is less efficient in combatting drug smuggling activities than the developmental approach (i.e., socio-economic development).

Law enforcement and implementation of harmonization of law enforcement norms related to drug smuggling

The article examines the problem of the development of Russian law in the framework of the implementation of the criminal procedure norms related to drug smuggling. It is proposed to consider the prevention and effectiveness of offenses related to drug smuggling through the harmonization of national legislation. Special attention is paid to the interaction of international and domestic norms of procedural law. Special attention is paid to a comprehensive analysis of the construction of a system for the implementation of the norms of law, on which the effective achievement of goals in the suppression of crime in the sphere of drug trafficking depends. Based on the study of the material, it has been found that the mechanism for the implementation of the norms of the criminal procedure is not quite simple: on the one hand, the appeal to foreign legal norms is regarded as an unproductive scientific discourse, on the other hand, theories are modeled on the damage to one's own legal system because of unjustified borrowings from other legal systems. The results and conclusions can be used in the practical activities of customs, law enforcement agencies.

Bhutan: The Role of the Constitutional Monarch in a Public Health Crisis

This chapter reflects on Bhutan’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The people’s trust and confidence in the leadership of His Majesty the King, their government, strong Buddhist values to help each other, and the conscience of unity and solidarity proved their foremost strength in containing this pandemic as a nation. The king’s personal involvement helped guide, motivate, and encourage compliance with and support for the government’s response. However, Bhutan faced several challenges during the pandemic. Though most of the people are united, there are outliers who took advantage of the situation; there are reported cases of drug smuggling and one case of a person who escaped from quarantine. The government responded by increasing border patrols. In the long run, other solutions could be considered: installing a smart wall—using drones, sensors, and artificial intelligence patrols—would give Bhutan more control over its borders in the context of another epidemic while also enabling the government to better control smuggling.

The Moral Economy of Drug Trafficking: Armed Civilians and Mexico’s Violence and Crime

The consolidation of armed civilian collectives in the Mexican state of Michoacán arose in a setting in which the illegal regional economy no longer focused on drug smuggling but had turned to a variety of criminal activities and in which the perspective of a moral economy had been restored. This restructuring of the criminal economy was a strong factor in the emergence of the armed collectives. La consolidación de colectivos civiles armados en el estado mexicano de Michoacán surgió en un entorno en el que la economía regional ilegal ya no se centraba en el contrabando de drogas, sino una variedad de actividades delictivas y el restablecimiento de la perspectiva de una economía moral. Esta reestructuración de la economía criminal se convirtió en un factor importante en el surgimiento de los colectivos armados.

Controversial Aspects of Criminal Law Qualification in Drug Smuggling in Russia

The article examines controversial issues arising in the criminal legal qualification of drug smuggling in transit across the territory of the Russian Federation by a foreign citizen. The research interest in such crimes is determined not only by the theoretical comparison of the points of view of the investigation (the prosecution) and the defense on its legal qualification, but also by the legal point of how law enforcement practice bypassed the existing gap (contradiction) in Russian and international legislation in determining the territory of the commission of this crime. In this article, we will try to find out what rules of law are applied in legal force in transit trafficking in narcotic drugs, how to organize legal regulation of such situations, in order to prevent them, while respecting the principle of responsibility for a crime under the law of the place of its commission.

Methods of Smuggling Narcotic Drugs, Psychotropic Substances, their Analogues and Precursors or Counterfeit Medicines and their Criminal Legal Characteristics

The concept of ways to commit drug smuggling, psychotropic substances, their analogues and precursors or counterfeit medicines that are present in scientific circles is analyzed. The main methods of drug smuggling and their detailed characteristics among the general classification are established and subspecies of ways to commit drug smuggling, which are relevant today, have been established and analyzed. At the same time, each subspecies is described and a clear example is given, which demonstrates the public danger of a particular way of committing drug smuggling. It was established that every year drug traffickers invent even more audacious ways to commit drug smuggling, while involving customs officers and law enforcement agencies in their illegal activities. Also, taking into account the unstable situation in the occupied territories of Ukraine and the realities of today, other illegal ways of smuggling counterfeit medicines have been established, which is quite a dangerous phenomenon. It is determined that the most appropriate and convenient way for the smuggling movement of counterfeit medicines is to forged customs identification documents and the use of fictitious business entities, which is an acute problem and requires new ways to solve this problem, as well as improvement of the legislation itself and the legal system as a whole. The methods of qualification of the above-mentioned offences under criminal law are analyzed and shortcomings regarding such qualifications are identified. A clear example and reasonably the need to make appropriate changes to the current norm, which provides for the responsibility for the smuggling of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, their analogues and precursors or counterfeit medicines, followed by the prospect of their use.