Drug trafficking is an illegal trade which involves, the cultivation of drugs, manufacturing, distribution, and selling of any illicit drug. Drug crime, on the other hand, consists of any combination of cultivation, production, distribution, sale or usage of the illegal drugs. The paper outlines detailed research on the effects of drug crimes and trafficking including, characterizing organized terror groups, enhancing illegal financial flows, corruption, and terrorism. The beginning of the paper will analyze the extent to which terror groups use the drug money in funding terrorism, illicit drug trafficking, and funding other non-state armed groups. The article outlines how drug-related organized crimes have transformed over the years. The consequences of drug money will be elaborated especially in the international systems (Dell, M. (2015). Lastly, the paper will analyze ways and means through which corruption and drug trade sector reinforce one another.
Influence of Drugs on Terrorism
In many parts of the world, including America, Iran, Iraq, and other regions, terrorism is believed to have been facilitated using drugs money (Bagley, 2012). Other terror attacks are carried out by individuals who are under the influence of powerful drugs. A good example, in Syria Arab republic most of the terror groups are believed to use amphetamine pills while in West Africa, most of the terror organizations are considered to be dealers in cocaine and bhang.
The UN Security Council, all the member states governments and other regional organizations have identified several numbers of groups which are involved in terror attacks or funding and who are directly linked with drug trafficking. The council has gone to the extent of imposing sanctions on more than 80 terror groups, and several individuals who are connected to Al-Qaida, Taliban and the Levant (ISIL) on the bases that they support terrorism or they are directly involved in terror attacks. In 2015, the Boko Haram and Al-Qaida terror group were responsible for more than 74% of all terrorism-related deaths. Reliable evidence suggests that, most of those terroristic groups and individual deal with drug trafficking.
Drug Challenges and Organised Crimes
For centuries, crime groups have been existing in different regions of the world and involved in international drug trading for many years. Over the years, the operation and structures of the drug dealers have been transformed by technology and shift of political legislation.
Drug trafficking seems to have reached its peak in the year 1990’s. After which other business opportunities came up. Most of the current activities of the organized crime groups never existed many years ago. Generally, drug trafficking serves as incubators for the development of the crime groups. Overall, drug trafficking continues to be the pivotal point for the organized crime groups (United Nations Publications, 2017). The groups have developed new ways of selling their products, ways to hide their income, ways in which they can influence the political environment and so on.
Significant Transformations of Drug Trafficking Sector over Time
The groups have always been flexible enough to adapt to changes. Some of the good illustrations for their flexibility include the diversification that the group went through in 1933 in the USA during the end of the alcohol prohibition. The organized groups shifted to new business opportunities in the lucrative sector. In a different incidence, after most of the groups in different parts of the world were cracked down especially the Cali cartels in Colombia early 1990’s, other new groups came up with broader diversified portfolios including, cybercrimes, smuggling of migrants, identity theft, money laundering, and environmental crimes. Most of the activities nowadays organized by this groups never existed before.
Generally, the flexibility of the crime groups is characterized by the fact that, the group operates in more than one sectors of the economies. For example, in Mexico, several drug groups operate a different business line. Back in 2013, an estimation done by European police indicated that 30% of the crime group conducted several crimes, and 50% of those were involved in drug trafficking. Drug trafficking crime related scenes in Europe include human being trafficking, weapons trafficking, counterfeiting of goods among others. The trend keeps on changing, and the group keeps on improving their formulae hence making it difficult to eliminate their activities.
Illegal Financial Flows and Drug Proceeds.
Illegal financial outflows and financial inflow involves money which is illegally earned and transferred or used cross borders. Billions and billions of money pass through the hands of drug traffickers every year and how they use up the cash has a significant effect to the economy both in the local setting and in the international economies (Levi, 2015). The crime groups precisely drug dealers may smuggle cash out of their home countries, they may also buy estates, invest in restaurants or even invest in casinos. Whichever the method they spend the money in, they do influence the prices of goods, services and properties, hence promoting unfair competition, bring in corruption, influence the rule of law negatively and ultimately affect economic stability. This section will majorly discuss how money from drugs affects the economy.
Effect of Drugs Money on the Economy
Drug money flows from the hands of drug dealers, through money launderers and finally to the licit economy hence having a high impact on the socioeconomic environment.
In the short run, drug money enhances the growth of the economy, promotes investments, and enhances the creation of employment hence influencing the growth of local GDP (Kruisbergen et al. 2015). However, in the long run, the effects tend to be negative especially, when the drug-related activities make up a more significant portion of the total economic events in the region or the country.
In this case, drug money has the power to inflate prices of properties, corruption, enhance unfair distribution of income and wealth and bring in unfair competition. In such an economy, most businesses which have no access to illicit money are forced out of the economy, and the illegal new economy rises. The growth of the illegal economy facilitates the growth of a weak economy and also weakens the rule of low hence reinforcing the vicious economic cycle. Money laundering activities also affect the exchange rates and interest rates leading to unpredictable capital outflows and inflows (Kruisbergen et al. 2015)
Illicit money in a more fabulous way changes the resource allocation mechanism, and resources are turned from high-yielding sectors to investments which earn low incomes. In such a case, the low earning people in such an economy tend to suffer since unemployment sets in and basic requirements tend to be more scarce and expensive. With an unstable exchange rate and low productivity, investors from other economies tend to avoid investing in those unstable countries to prevent losing their capital. Exportation sector also is adversely affected in such an economy, and the rate of importation goes high hence having a negative balance of trade. All those and many others are effects of drug money in an economy.
Relationship between Corruption and Drug Trafficking
There is a mutual relationship between drug trafficking and corruption. In a corrupt environment, drug production, trafficking, and use are highly breaded. It is so because, the wealth of some drug traffickers exceed the wealth of the local government, which allows them the ability to buy protection from, politicians, the law enforcing agents, business sectors and also from the judicial institutions hence promoting corruption. Some of the economies with a high-level relationship between corruption and drug trafficking include Mexico and Guinea Bissau (Dell, 2015).
In an economy where the two are rampant, the economic yield is automatically too low. Investors tend to withdraw their investments in fear of losing their capital. Interest rates are negatively affected, unemployment sets in and many other negative impacts. Overall, corruption creates a breeding environment for illicit economy including, illegal drug trade and many other unlawful business activities.
Conclusion.
Worldwide, drug trafficking and drug crimes have been a threat for a very long time. Drug trafficking has been used as a source of income by many people and hence threatening the economy of many countries. The challenge remains to be; drug trafficking is one of the many income streams used by terroristic groups and individuals. It, therefore, means, if one income stream is closed, another one can be used, such as kidnapping, bank robbery, extortion and many other. Thus, states should come up with deterrent measures to curb drug trafficking and crimes for the safety of their economies.
References
Bagley, B. (2012). Drug trafficking and organized crime in the Americas. Woodrow Wilson Center Update of the Americas. (Link: https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/BB%20Final.pdf)
Dell, M. (2015). Trafficking networks and the Mexican drug war. American Economic Review, 105(6), 1738-79.
Kruisbergen, E. W., Kleemans, E. R., & Kouwenberg, R. F. (2015). Profitability, power, or proximity? Organized crime offenders are investing their money in the legal economy. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, 21(2), 237-256.
Lavorgna, A. (2015). Organized crime goes online: Realities and challenges. Journal of Money Laundering Control, 18(2), 153-168.
Levi, M. (2015). Money for crime and money from crime: Financing crime and laundering crime proceeds. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, 21(2), 275-297.
Paoli, L. (2017). What is the link between organized crime and drug trafficking? Rausch-Wiener Zeitschrift für Suchttherapie, 6(4), 181-189. (link:https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325120387_What_is_the_link_between_ organized_crime
United Nations Publications. (2017). World Drug Report 2017. [S.L.]: United Nations Publications. (link: https://www.unodc.org/wdr2017/field/Booklet_1_EXSUM.pdf)
