Drug trafficking is an ever rising security problem affecting many nations across the globe. Governments as well as international bodies including the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and several international donors have made great efforts in acknowledging the drug trafficking problem and are currently implementing measures to address it. Amidst the efforts made by several institutions, numerous quantities of drugs are produced, consumed, and trafficked throughout the world, with narco-corruption being the key undermining factor of legitimate economic development and international institutions. New psychoactive substances are manufactured by transnational crime syndicates when controls over existing drugs are increased. This phenomenon has greatly affected the national and international security as a result of increased corruption and impunity, rising violence and war, and the strengthening of terrorists, insurgents, and separatists.
Increased corruption and impunity
Government officials and security personnel that ought to fight against drug trafficking are the same individual engaging in corruption. The officials have the powers of controlling the mechanisms needed by drug traffickers to smuggle in illegal drugs. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (2008) noted that law enforcement including state policemen and high ranking government officials who are in charge of security are always influenced by briber which coerce them into the illegal trafficking businesses. Diaz asserted that in Mexico alone, there are over 100,000 deaths arising from drug-trafficking related violence since 2006 out of which 40% go unrecognized (n.p). Such impunity affects a country’s ability to effectively govern its citizens as well as undermines the systems of justice. In addition, the money that is generated through the drug-dealing businesses corrupts and destabilizes the existing financial systems. This has been witnessed in the UK where the Treasury reported in 2015 that an estimated $1.6 billion had been launder through drug trafficking. The report revealed that criminality related to money laundering presents a great security risk while causing political instability.
Corruption emanating from illegal drug use has affected many regions in South and Central America. The country’s Commission on Human Rights reported that criminal funds cause detrimental impacts with some nations filled with corruption and impunity enabling criminal gangs to create individual power organizations. According to Diaz, majority of the countries that engages in the production or transit of illegal drugs ranks poorly in the Transparency International Index (n.p). This has been observed in Afghanistan and Guinea-Bissau as well as Mexico and Colombia which are known for drug trafficking but remaining the poorest performing nations in the Transparency International Index. Similarly, Afghanistan repeatedly records poor economic performance as a result of the increased corruption cases as well as rising cases of illicit drug use.
Conflict and violence
In the recent years, the Transnational Organized Crimes (TOCs) and Drug Trafficking Organizations (DTOs) have violence as a means of protecting their illicit drug related activities. Many cartels recruit private armies and militias who have the resources to outgun local authorities and state law enforcement agencies. In addition, TOCs are able to organize, fund, and merge insurgent groups as well as work with separatists to finance terror groups and individual terrorists. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (2008) revealed that illicit drug trading escalates violence by the TOCs while disrupting the drug market. This violence occurs between the law enforcement and criminal groups as well as among the criminal groups themselves as they fight to acquire ownership of the illicit market share.
A country that has faced conflict and violence as a result of illicit drug trading is Mexico. Although Mexico has historically recorded increased cases of internal violence, the wrangles witnessed have reduced over the years (Diaz n.p). However, in 2006, illicit drug-related war erupted in the country when the then president, Calderon, announced that more security would be enforced to fight the illegal dealings. As a result, the government considered a “decapitation strategy” which involved killing of the drug cartel leaders or arresting them in order to paralyze the activities (Herold 8). This resulted in extreme violence as the groups divided into groups to battle for the power vacuums while others joined forces with corrupt law enforcement to seize control. By the end of 2014, more than 60,000 deaths had been reported including 4000 women and 1,200 children as a result of the gang violence.
State violence
The police or national security forces may also undermine the security of a country as a result of drug-war policies. According to Crick, the United States Human Rights Observatory and the Fellowship of Reconciliation had reported that military assistance contributes to extrajudicial killings (405). If military activities are “moderately financed” to fight the activities of illegal drug traffickers, multiple extrajudicial killings are recorded. This has been illustrated by Kushlick (2011) who gave an example of Central America where the fight against narcotic drugs resulted in deaths of at least 149 civilians in Honduras between 2011 and 2012. Similar violence had been witnessed in Indonesia after the government ordered that drug dealers were to be dealt with using “shoot to kill” policy (Kushlick 4). By the end of the operation, more than 1000 innocent civilians lost their lives.
Illegal drug trading has also resulted in violence in Thailand. In 2003, the government ordered a crackdown of illicit drug dealers, an operation that lasted for three months. More than 2,800 civilians had been found dead and yet none of the perpetrators were arrested. According to Kushlick, the Office of Narcotics Control Board came to admit in 2007 that over 1,400 people who died during the operation did not have any links with the illicit drug trafficking (4). As thousands of executions occur yearly due to drug-related offenses, the actual numbers of the incidences are not well documented. Statistics by the Chinese government in 2007 show that the annual executions related to drug trafficking ranges from 2000 to 15000 (Herold 7). In Iran, the deaths had risen to 800 by 2015; the country reports the highest executions per capita as per the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office records.
Access to funds and arms by the separatists, insurgents, and terrorist
A significant concept in addressing the impacts of drug trafficking is the existing nexus between drug wars and the non-state actors who provide financial support to the traffickers. In most cases, the effects of criminal markets are not restricting to undermining the national economy, but also involve the provision of funds by private actors. Illicit drug trade generates vast amount of money which is majorly laundered in within the global banking system. This activity undermines functionality of various states, and can affect the GDP of a nation. Inkster and Comolli asserted that the accessible finance within the drug cartels pushes most individuals towards joining the insurgent groups (15). In addition to this, drug war practices, particularly crop eradication approach, can motivate citizens to join the drug-related gangs. Richard Holbrooke, the former Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan argued that farmers who initially depended on opium farming were forced to join the illicit drug groups which would act as their alternative source of income. Most of the youths and farmers joined the ‘Taliban” group for financial security.
In Bolivia, almost every farmer cultivates the coca plant which is sold to the drug dealers. The country’s GDP is influenced by Coca trade which also provides livelihood to over 500,000 people. By planting coca, the Bolivian farmers are always assured of four time profit compared to the other crops. The Bolivian government together with the citizens had opposed the US government attempt to impose the anti-drug policy which would prohibit the farmers from growing the crop. Such eradication programs are detrimental to the growth of a nation; the farmers may end up joining illicit drug groups for financial aid. Furthermore, enmity between the locals and anti-coca farming has been growing over the years. For instance, in 1988, there was a murder attempt towards the secretary of state, George Shultz, and in 1989, some of the Marmon missionaries had been attacked and killed for their attempt to stop spread the eradication. The efforts made by the US may, therefore, lead to narcoterrorism as observed in Colombia today.
Insurgents can improve their association with drug traffickers amidst their existing ideological differences. The Columbian Marxist, FARC, uses the rug trafficking as a means to run their activities. Insurgents also raise their revenues by taxing drugs and goods that that have been smuggled by DTOs and TOCs including weapons (Glaze 14). In the late 1980s, the president of Peru, Fernando Belaune Terry, identified an insurgent group, The Shining Path, as a “narco-terrorist” group that produces and distributes drugs to western nations and in the local regions. Similarly, in the recent years, Brazil has discovered that various drug-related groups have been supporting an illegal market economy which accounts for consumer goods that are worth over $10 billion (United Nations Security Council 1). Such operations do not only affect the economic growth of the country, but also hinders actual trading in the international market.
Increased costs of resources aided towards fighting the illegal drugs
The allocation of funds towards the enforcement of anti-drug laws and militarization of the problem can cause a starvation of various social programs that are important for the citizens of a country. “Policy Displacement” approach focusses on the interventions aimed at controlling drug use, both at the local and international levels. Although such efforts may be effective in minimizing drug trafficking, Inkster and Comolli note that the efforts may result in the diversion of resources from key infrastructural development to militarization, thus, hindering the provision of health and other human needs (18). The increased spending on security efforts, therefore, undermines healthcare, economic opportunities, and education provision. Furthermore, fighting illicit drug trafficking and smuggling of such drugs can result in increased incarceration of innocent citizens instead of the actual culprits who are mostly protected by the top officials (United Nations Security Council 2). The resource constraint is currently witnessed in the many developing nations where prisons are overpopulated as a result of drug-related cases while its urban areas remain constrained with key financial resources.
In a globalized scale, western countries also have their financial resources skewed towards militarization in order to facilitate anti-drug policy enforcement and punishment. In the 1980s, the US had already began funding various anti-drug programs including the Andean Initiative, Plan Columbia, and Merida Initiative which were focused on addressing drug trafficking. One of the reasons for the country’s focus towards such programs is the alleged terrorism and drug trafficking threats towards the national security. Gate and Lektzian had noted that in the 1999, Andres Pastrana, the Colombian president, requested the government of the US to assist in addressing trafficking which was rising in the country. In response, the US provided Colombia with $860 million out of which over $632 million were allocate to the department of law enforcement and only $227 million could be used for economic and social development (United Nations Security Council 3). This trend of overspending on national security is common in most countries thereby hindering growth and development.
Ballooning effect on security
An unintended effect of drug trafficking is the ballooning consequences which directly affects the security of internal community. DTOs, for instance, target different regions when the countries they reside in are encroached; they, therefore, begin to expand to other countries where they smuggle drugs. According to Gates and Lektzian, with the strengthened fights against trafficking of drugs, the consequence is the spreading of the drug-related trades in various regions (12). This phenomenon causes threat to the fragile environments which lack military and financial capacities to deal with the insecurities arising from drug trafficking. In the case of coca production, the localized efforts of law enforcement have always shifted the production of the drug crop between Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru (United Nations Security Council 3). Recently, the disruptions of drug trafficking activities in the Caribbean and Latin American market has made drug lords to consider West Africa the alternative option for transshipment.
Conclusion
Illicit drug production and trafficking has been a key threat to national and international security over the decades. Although drug users have never been a threat to the national security, the drug lords and smugglers have also put the security of nations in jeopardy as the illicit drug markets hinder the economic trade balance and overall productivity. Drug trafficking has contributed to various corruption cases in both developing and developed nations including the security personnel and government officials who ought to enforce the anti-drug policies. The emergence of Transnational Organized Crimes and Drug Trafficking Organizations has resulted in increased violence as the groups consider intimidation as the means to protect themselves from the law enforcement and expand their illicit drug trading to various regions. In response, the police and other law enforcement agencies have always adopted violence which has further undermined the security of citizens as many innocent civilians end up losing their lives in the process. It is, therefore, important that states work collaboratively to address the challenges posed by drug trafficking as well as improve economic and social status associated with national security.
Works Cited
Crick, Emily. "Drugs as an existential threat: An analysis of the international securitization of drugs." International Journal of Drug Policy 23.5 (2012): 407-414.
Diaz, Lizbeth. “Fueling drug gangs’ impunity, unidentified corpses pile up in Mexico.” (September, 2015). Reuters. Accessed 24/4/2018 from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-violence-insight/fueling-drug-gangs-impunity-unidentified-corpses-pile-up-in-mexico-idUSKBN0H20JG20140907
Gates, Scott, and David Lektzian. "Drugs, governance, and civil conflict." Annual Conference of the Norwegian Political Science Association, January. 2005.
Glaze, John A. Opium and Afghanistan: Reassessing US counternarcotics strategy. ARMY WAR COLL STRATEGIC STUDIES INST CARLISLE BARRACKS PA, 2007.
Herold, M. W. "Afghanistan: Wealth, Corruption and Criminality amidst Mass Poverty." Afghanistan: Wealth, Corruption and Criminality Amidst Mass Poverty. Centre for Research on Globalization (2010).
Inkster, Nigel, and Virginia Comolli. Drugs, insecurity and failed states: the problems of prohibition. Routledge for the International Institute for Strategic Studies, 2012.
Kushlick, Danny. "International security and the global war on drugs: The tragic irony of drug securitisation." Transform Drug Policy Foundation. Retrieved November 15 (2011): 2014.
United Nations Security Council. “Security Council, Concerned at Threat Posed by Illicit Cross-Border Trafficking, Asks for Assessment of UN Efforts in Helping States Counter Challenges.” (2012). Accessed 24/4/2018 from http://www.securitycouncilreport.org/un-documents/drug-trafficking-and-security/
