Transnational Crime
Harvesting coca leaves, Chapare Province, Bolivia, 1991
Credit: UN Photo / J Sailas
Summary
Cyber criminality, environmental crime, trafficking in drugs, humans, pharmaceuticals, and weapons… the actors of international organized crime constantly diversify their activities, which destroy individuals, blight societies and states, and cause breakdowns in economies. Corruption, trafficking, poverty, conflicts, and terrorism all sustain and reinforce one another.
Actors participating in transnational organized crime are constantly diversifying their activities, aided by certain public policies and by corruption, their wheels oiled by the dark net, smartphones and crypto-currencies. Cybercrime and environmental crime have now been added to trafficking in drugs, humans, medicines, and arms.
Transnational crime blights societies and states and devastates economies. The considerable amounts of capital that it releases stimulate investment as well as gross domestic product (GDP) but corruption, money-laundering and inflated house prices deepen inequalities, distort competition, and discourage FDI (foreign direct investment). Corruption, trafficking, poverty, conflicts and terrorism all maintain and mutually reinforce one another. Inscrutability, which is vital for organized crime networks, makes its scope difficult to assess, as shown by the limited data published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Corruption perceptions index, 2017
Comment: By definition opaque, corruption can only be approached through surveys which the NGO Transparency International has been conducting annually since 1995. The Corruption Perceptions Index is a composite, global index, based on independent assessments carried out in the countries involved; it assesses the practices of public servants, bribes, public procurements, and misappropriation of funds. The great majority of countries are affected by corruption, but the levels are highest in Southern states (in Africa, the Middle East, and Central America) but also in Russia.
Drugs
Drug trafficking accounts for more than a quarter of the revenue from transnational crime and is the second source of revenue after counterfeiting. According to the UNODC, 5% of the world population used an illicit drug at least once during the course of 2015, and 30 million people suffer from substance-use disorders. A loose conglomeration of more diffuse networks has now been added to the former large cartels (Mexico, Japan, Russia, and Italy). The far-reaching extent of confiscations confirms the global character of the phenomenon.
There is an increase in drug production across the board, as well as new, more diverse avenues for distributing them. In 2015-2016, poppy-farming produced 6,380 tons of opium, of which Afghanistan provided two-thirds. Among opiates, heroin consumption carries particularly high risks, both direct and indirect (death, hepatitis C, HIV, tuberculosis). The Taliban control production destined for markets in Europe and the Americas via the Balkan route (Iran, Turkey, and Central Europe), the Southern route (South Asia and the Middle East) and the Northern route (Central Asia and Russia). The revenues are used to buy weapons and finance the war of which Afghans are the first victims.
Coca, grown in Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia, led to the production of 1,125 tons of pure cocaine in 2015, which was consumed by 0.4% of the global population (1.8% in North America, 1.1% in Europe). In Colombia, the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) played a role in this production which, according to the peace agreement signed in 2016, is due to cease.
In addition to the traditional flow of drugs toward North America and Europe, the more recent West Africa route (via Brazil then Nigeria or Cape Verde, Ghana, Mali, the Niger and Chad), are an important factor in the region’s instability (links with Boko Haram and AQIM [Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb]). Over the whole of South America, powerful cartels are supported by transnational economic elites and the ability of their networks to penetrate into societies, leading to social and political violence.
Production and trafficking of main drugs (excluding cannabis), mid 2010s
Comment: The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) gathers and produces data on the consumption, production and trafficking of illegal drugs. The summary overview map shows the global geography of drugs, except for cannabis whose production and consumption are diffuse. The geographies of the three principal drugs are fairly distinct : 1. Cultivation of the opium poppy is concentrated in Afghanistan and, to a lesser extent, in Myanmar; the flows of opiates (particularly heroin) supply consumers in Europe, Russia, Asia, and the Middle East; 2. Cultivation of coca is confined to the Andes (Colombia, Peru and Bolivia) and supplies markets in North (and South) America and Europe via multiple routes, sometimes indirect, such as Africa; 3. The networks for synthetic drugs are less well known and more fluctuating, because of the multitude of clandestine laboratories that produce these chemical substances.
The world’s leading drug, cannabis (183 million users in 2015), is farmed in 135 countries. Morocco, Afghanistan, Lebanon, India, and Pakistan are the chief producers of cannabis resin while production of cannabis herb is spread more widely throughout the world. Consumption is increasing in Africa, Asia, and the United States (13.5 % of the population). As for synthetic drugs such as LSD, ecstasy (22 million users), amphetamines, and methamphetamines (37 million), these are produced in different forms throughout the world. It is difficult to assess the quantities, but they are certainly increasing in Eastern and Southeast Asia.
Drug consumption (excluding cannabis), mid 2010s
Comment: These diagrams are constructed from estimates (overlapping circles of low and high averages) provided by the UNODC. They show the numbers of drug consumers (size of circles) and their prevalence, that is their proportion of the national population (color shading). Although much more widely consumed than the hard drugs shown in this graph, cannabis is not represented. On the global scale, synthetic drugs (such as amphetamines and ecstasy) are the most widely consumed; opiates are consumed more in Asia, Europe and the Middle East, while cocaine is more popular in America and Europe. North America stands out for its high prevalence of cocaine and ATS consumption (over 1.5% of the population), which is also the case for the Middle East with regard to opiates.
Policies that focus on combating drug supply, forcing eradication without sufficient alternatives for poor peasant farmers, and cracking down on users, are criticized by NG, which are encouraging a debate on the orientation and lack of effectiveness of these policies. Instead, they are promoting alternatives which seek to reduce risks by means of education, access to treatment, and social inclusion.
Human trafficking
Sexual abuse (54%), forced labor (40%), begging, forced marriage, child soldiers, baby-selling, pornography, organ removal… human trafficking, or modern slavery, is global and multi-sectoral. 79 % of victims are women and children, but perpetrators continue to go unpunished even through the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons (2000) was ratified by 170 states. Poverty and conflict are the primary factors in victims’ vulnerability, and it is these that provide traffickers were their best opportunities. The frequency of trafficking is therefore increasing along migrant and refugee routes and in conflict zones: 2,000 child soldiers in Sierra Leone during the course of the 1990s, at least 6,000 in the Central African Republic in 2014, over 4,000 in the DR Congo and, more recently, girls and infants kidnapped by Boko Haram in Northern Nigeria, plus 3,000 Yazidi women and children held captive by ISIS.
Modern slavery
Comment: Data from the ILO and the Australian Walk Free Foundation estimate the number of individuals working in slave conditions, as well as identifying its forms and geography. The diagram and maps show that 25 million people in the world undergo forced labor (exploitation, sex, and inflicted by the state), mainly in Asia-Pacific and in Europe and Central Asia (with a prevalence of 3.5 to 4.8 per 1,000), and that 15 million undergo forced marriage (most of them women and children), especially in Asia-Pacific and Africa (where it is most prevalent).
- environmental > Environment
- In broad terms, the environment is understood as the biosphere in which living species cohabit, while ecology studies the relations between these organisms and their environment. The environment encompasses very diverse natural areas from undisturbed virgin forests to artificialized environments planned and exploited by humans. In a more limited definition of the term, “environmental” issues are those relating to natural resources (their management, use and degradation) and biological biodiversity (fauna and flora). As a cross-cutting public concern, the environment encompasses issues of societal organization (production models, transport, infrastructure, etc.) and their impacts on the health of humans and ecosystems.
- states > State
- The state is a political system that is centralized (unlike the feudal system), differentiated (from civil society, public/private space), institutionalized (institutions are depersonalized), territorialized (a territory whose borders mark the absolute limit of its jurisdiction), that claims sovereignty (holding ultimate power) and that bears responsibility for ensuring its population’s security. In public international law, the state is defined as a population living on a territory defined by borders subject to a political authority (the national territorial state).
- gross domestic product > Gross Domestic Product
- An economic indicator measuring a country’s wealth as generated by investment and expenditure on consumption by households, businesses and the state (not to be confused with gross national income, which measures total wealth created exclusively by national economic actors). Much used by economists (notably per capita GDP), it is biased in a number of ways: it considers only commercial activities, does not include negative externalities (such as environmental destruction), avoids the issue of social and geographical inequalities and (wrongly) postulates the existence of a correlation between wealth and degree of development. Other statistical tools have been developed to counteract these shortcomings (Human Development Index, Gini Index, etc.).
- FDI > Foreign direct investment
- Any investment motivated by a company’s aim of acquiring a lasting interest (shareholding exceeding 10% of voting rights) and significant influence in the management of a company based in another country. The transaction, implying a long-term relationship (unlike speculative investments), can involve the creation of a new company or, more usually, the takeover of all or part of an existing company via acquisition or merger. FDI, which mostly concerns flows between countries of the Global North, underpins multinational corporations’ globalization strategies.
- conflicts > War
- Violent confrontation between armed groups over values, status, power or scarce resources, in which the aim of each party is to neutralize, weaken or eliminate their adversaries. This organized, collective, armed violence can be undertaken by states (via their national armies) or by non-state groups; it can bring several states into opposition (interstate war) or occur within a single state (civil war). The former, progressively codified within a legal framework, have become rare, while the latter, today primarily caused by state institutional failure, are tending to become more international in scope, to last over time (sometimes decades) and to be extremely devastating, especially for civilian populations.
- networks > Network
- Classical geography tended to place too much importance on surface areas, territories, countries and soil, but network analysis has now become central to its approach. Networks are defined as spaces in which distance is discontinuous and consists of nodes linked by lines. Some are physical (networks for the transportation of people, goods and energy, IT cables and information super highways), others not. When they are partly virtual (such as the internet), they also involve individuals and organizations. Philosophers (Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari), sociologists (Manuel Castells), political scientists (James Rosenau), and economists use this concept to analyze the interconnected functioning of individuals.
- counterfeiting > Counterfeit
- Counterfeiting means the reproduction, imitation or total or partial use of an intellectual property right without the authorization of its owner (brand, model, patent, copyright, software, etc.) and for the purpose of cheating the buyer. It involves all sectors of the economy and is now further stimulated by e-commerce. It forms a high proportion of international crime (500 billion dollars in 2016) in which Chinese manufacturers have a dominant place. The populations of developing countries are particularly exposed to dangers from the sale of counterfeit medicines, especially in Africa.
- slavery > Slavery
- From the start of the 17th century through to the end of the 19th century, slavery formed the basis of economic growth and societal organization throughout the New World (in the southern states of the US, the Caribbean, Brazil, etc.). African domestic and agricultural laborers, imported and traded as a commodity, drove the development of sugar, tobacco and cotton plantations and the mining of precious metals. Today, the International Labor Organization (ILO) defines modern slavery as covering all victims of forced labor in both public and private spheres (domestic labor, construction, agriculture), of sexual exploitation and of forced marriage.
- Poverty
- Initially referring to a lack of economic resources, the notion of poverty has broadened in recent decades to include its different components, such as appalling sanitary conditions, a low level of education, social and gender inequalities, human rights violations, environmental damage, and increased vulnerability to so-called “natural” disasters. The Human Development Index (HDI) developed by the United Nations Development Program in the mid-1990s (and its gendered variant, Gender Development Index or GDI) and the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) devised by researchers at the University of Oxford in 2010, use Amartya Sen’s work on capabilities to identify the deprivation suffered by the poor in terms of health, education, and living standards.
- migrant > Migration
- Movement of people leaving their country of origin permanently (emigration) to relocate to another country (immigration), which might be voluntary or forced (war, poverty, unemployment, human rights violations, climate factors, etc.), and which often involves temporary stays of varying duration in several transit countries. Migratory flows, which are an integral component of humanity’s history, give rise to a range of public policy measures linked to specific political, economic and cultural contexts and understandings of nationality. Host states seek to organize immigration, sometimes to attract it (need for labor, exploitation of specific territories, naturalizations, etc.), and most often to restrict it (border controls, quotas, residence permits, etc.). In most cases the states of origin seek to maintain relations with their nationals and diaspora communities living abroad.
- refugee > Refugee
- A status applying to persons living outside their country of origin, who have been recognized by their host country as refugees according to definition set out in the Geneva Convention of 1951. This convention grants the protection and assistance of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (HCR) to anyone who, “owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.” The term refugee should not be confused with that of asylum seeker, which applies to people who have fled their country and have submitted a request for asylum to their host country or to the HCR in order to benefit from refugee status. A refugee has been an asylum seeker, but not all asylum seekers have their request accepted (those who have been rejected must then leave the country).