By Liz McCulloch and Scarlett Furlong

In this report, Volteface aims to bridge the gap in understanding of how social media is being used as a marketplace for illicit drugs and the impact this is having on young people – social media’s primary user group. This report examines how prevalent this phenomenon is, which platforms are most likely to host this activity, what drugs are being advertised, how the platforms are being used, and what impact this is having on young people’s wellbeing, as well as the challenges facing social media regulators and law enforcement.   

London: Volteface, 2019. 87p.

By Mark Shaw

Drug seizures are widely referred to in the media and academic reporting on drug trafficking and organised crime. Everyone knows their limitations. But what if seizures represent the exact opposite of what we generally think them to be? That is, not a reflection of state efficiency, but rather cracks in systems of political protection. If that is the case, they may appear more regularly at some times rather than others. A detailed study of West African cocaine seizures in the context of periods of political instability over a twenty-year period suggest this association is worth exploring.

ENACT (Africa), 2021. 23p.

By  Mathew H. Charles

Ecuador’s coastline has become a key despatch point for international drug traffickers exporting cocaine that has been produced in Colombia and Peru. As a result, Ecuador, and its port city of Guayaquil in particular, have become the latest epicentre of the world’s drug violence as local gangs battle for supremacy to impress international traffickers and assume a larger share of the country’s lucrative cocaine industry. Key points • The Sinaloa and Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) cartels from Mexico use maritime routes and a network of “go-fast” vessels (GFVs) and fishing boats to ship cocaine to Central America and the USA. • International traffickers, including Albanian gangs and other criminal structures from the Balkans, contaminate international shipping at the port of Guayaquil in Guayas to ship cocaine to Europe. • In 2021, the police say they seized a record 210 tonnes of cocaine in Guayaquil, up from 128 tonnes in 2020. • In 2021, the province of Esmeraldas registered its highest murder count for seven years with a total of 79 homicides. In the first 8 months of 2022, the number has increased to 304. • In the city of Guayaquil, the homicide rate has doubled to 34.1 per 100,000 inhabitants in the past 12 months, making it one of the world’s most dangerous cities.   

University of Rosario, Observatorio Colombiano de Crimen Organizado (OCCO), 2022. 5p.

By UNODC and EUROPOL

The cocaine market presents a clear threat at global level. Well-defined locations of production in South America and large consumer markets in the Americas and Europe lead to trafficking routes from a circumscribed origin to specific, even if far-flung, destinations. While some parts of the world play a crucial role as transit regions, the routes, modalities and networks employed by criminal actors continue to evolve, diversify and become more efficient. The increasingly globalized, interconnected, digitalized and technologically sophisticated nature of society, as well as a growing affluent demographic in some regions where cocaine use has traditionally been low, can potentially catalyse and accelerate the dynamism and expansion of the market. 

Vienna: UNODC and EUROPOL, 2021. 28p.

By Timothy J. Moore & Rosalie Liccardo Pacula

Large and rapid upswings in illicit drug use display similar properties to infectious disease epidemics. In this chapter, we review research to understand what causes drug epidemics and how they end. Drug market actors are subject to both positive and negative reinforcement that lead to rapid, nonlinear increases and decreases in drug market activity. There is evidence that drug epidemics cause serious problems, including drug overdoses, adverse birth outcomes, homicides, lower educational attainment, and migration from neighborhoods subject to intense drug market activity. Many of these costs are borne by those who do not consume or sell drugs. Given the frequency, size, and impacts of illicit drug epidemics, they deserve more attention by researchers and policy-makers.

Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2021.  53p.

By Diana S. Kim

"Though today opiates are highly controlled substances and generally viewed as menaces to society, the opium trade was once licit and profitable, both for merchants and for the governments to which they paid taxes. During the late nineteenth century, British and French colonies in Southeast Asia drew up to fifty percent of their revenue from taxes on opium consumption. Given its profitability and European rulers' strenuous defence of opium as an integral part of managing an empire, how did both attitudes toward and laws about opium shift so dramatically by the mid-twentieth century? This book argues against the conventional understanding that opium prohibition was enacted as part of a wave of liberal humanitarianism or because doctors awoke to its dangers to users' wellbeing, and instead offers a more complex story. In examining the opium's fall from grace throughout British and French colonies in Southeast Asia from the 1860s to the 1940s, Diana Kim combines extensive archival research with her training in political science. This book reveals the key role minor colonial administrators played in the abolition process. Local administrators were players in intellectual debates and decision-making processes concerning opium, and the knowledge they produced-their records and observations-influenced the empire's revenue policies. The author's analysis of these processes challenges notions that states implement policies based on maximizing their revenue. By observing how opium prohibition was implemented differently and at different times across the region, Kim argues against the idea that the push for prohibition came from the metropole. Further, she reflects on the lasting legacies of prohibition and the implications for present-day politics and public regulation of vice crimes and illicit markets, making a statement about how vice is defined and how its regulation affects processes of state formation, colonial and otherwise"

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  region, Kim argues against the idea that the push for prohibition came from the metropole. Further, she reflects on the lasting legacies of prohibition and the implications for present-day politics and public regulation of vice crimes and illicit markets, making a statement about how vice is defined and how its regulation affects processes of state formation, colonial and otherwise”

Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2020. 336p.

By David Macdonald

Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of opium and heroin. This book explores the devastating impact that the drugs trade has had on the Afghan people. Author David Macdonald has worked as a drugs advisor to the UN. Based on his extensive experience, this book breaks down the myths surrounding the cultivation and consumption of drugs, providing a detailed analysis of the history of drug use within the country. He examines the impact of over 25 years of continuous conflict, and shows how poverty and instability has led to an increase in drugs consumption. He also considers the recent rise in the use of pharmaceutical drugs, resulting in dangerous chemical cocktails and analyses the effect of Afghanistan's drug trade on neighbouring countries.

London: Ann Arbor, MI: Pluto Press, 2007. 320p.

By Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy

Known to the Greeks as 'opos' or 'opion', as 'afiun' in Persian and Arabic, and 'fuyung' in Chinese, opium is at once a palliative and a poison. Its exotic origins, its literary associations, and the properties that are, often erroneously, attributed to it have ensured an ongoing air of mystery. Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy reveals the long and fascinating history of a powerful and addictive drug and explores the changing fortunes of the modern-day illicit opium trade, especially in the remote regions of Asia. He answers key questions: Why have anti-drug policies failed despite four decades of increasing effort? And what are the shortcomings and limitations of forced eradication, alternative development, "silver bullets," and other quick fixes? In answering these questions, Chouvy draws upon geography, anthropology, politics, and development studies. He shows that the history of opium production is unexpectedly linked to the history of Afghanistan. A compelling account of a narcotic as old as humanity, Opium offers powerful insights into the complex politics and economics of the poppy in the world today.

Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010. 272p.

By W. Travis Hanes III and Frank Sanello

In this tragic and powerful story, the two Opium Wars of 1839–1842 and 1856–1860 between Britain and China are recounted for the first time through the eyes of the Chinese as well as the Imperial West. Opium entered China during the Middle Ages when Arab traders brought it into China for medicinal purposes. As it took hold as a recreational drug, opium wrought havoc on Chinese society. By the early nineteenth century, 90 percent of the Emperor’s court and the majority of the army were opium addicts.Britain was also a nation addicted-to tea, grown in China, and paid for with profits made from the opium trade. When China tried to ban the use of the drug and bar its Western smugglers from its gates, England decided to fight to keep open China’s ports for its importation. England, the superpower of its time, managed to do so in two wars, resulting in a drug-induced devastation of the Chinese people that would last 150 years.In this page-turning, dramatic and colorful history, The Opium Wars responds to past, biased Western accounts by representing the neglected Chinese version of the story and showing how the wars stand as one of the monumental clashes between the cultures of East and West.

Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, 2004.  352p.

By Maia Dolphin-Krute

An epidemic is a feeling set within time as much as it is a matter of statistics and epidemiology: it is the feeling of many of us in the same desperate place at the same desperate time. Opioid epidemic thus names a present moment — at once historic and historical — centered on the substance of opioids as much as it names the urgency of all of us who are currently in proximity to these substances. What is the relationship between these historic and historical moments, the present moment, the history of pharmacological capitalism, and a set of repeated neurological activities, as well as human loss and desire, that has fueled the exponential rise in the rates of opioid use and abuse between 2000-2018? Opioids: Addiction, Narrative, Freedom is an auto-ethnography written from deep within—biologically within—this opioid epidemic. Tracing opioids around and through the bodies, governmental, and medical structures they are moving and being moved through, Opioids is an examination of what it means to live within an environment saturated with a substance of deep economic, political, neuroscientific, and pharmacological implications. From exploring media coverage of the epidemic and emerging medical narratives of addiction to detailing the legal inscription of differences between “pain patients” and people addicted to drugs, Opioids consistently asks: what is it like to live within an epidemic? What forms of freedom become possible when continually modulated by our physical experiences of the material proximities of an epidemic? How do you live with something for a long time?

Brooklyn, NY: Punctum Books, 2018. 192p.

By Nick Robins

The English East India Company was the mother of the modern multinational. Its trading empire encircled the globe, importing Asian luxuries such as spices, textiles and teas. But the Company’s takeover of much of India was achieved by force and fraud; in China, the battering ram was opium. The East India Company’s corruption and violence shocked its contemporaries and still reverberates today. The Corporation That Changed the World is the first book to examine the Company’s enduring legacy as a corporation. It uncovers the factors that drove it to excess and eventual collapse. This expanded edition looks at recent activist and cultural responses to the Company in China and India, and the corporate reform agenda in light of the economic crisis. In his account of the Company's story Robins highlights enduring lessons on how to make global business accountable. This will be vital reading for students and academics in economics and history.

London: Pluto Press, 2012. 281p.

By Hans Derks

This is the first scholarly study in which the production, trade and political effects of opium and its derivatives are shown over many centuries, and in many countries (China, India, Indonesia, Japan, all Southeast Asian countries and some in Europe and the Americas). Starting in the 16th century, slavery and opium became the two means with which the bodies and souls of men and women in the tropics were exploited in western imperialism and colonialism. The first waned with the abolition movement in the 19th century, but opium production and trade continued to spread, with the associated serious social and political effects. Around 1670 the Dutch introduced opium as a cash crop for mass production and distribution in India and Indonesia. China became the main target in the 19th century, and only succeeded in getting rid of the opium problem around 1950. Then it had already been transformed from an “Eastern” into a “Western” problem.

Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2012. 850p.

By Elizabeth Kirkham and Singo Mwachof

This briefing outlines the wide-ranging causes of small arms and light weapons (SALW) and ammunition proliferation and misuse into and within the continent of Africa , and the impact this has on the economic prospects and people’s lives. It makes the case for the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation to address the proliferation of illicit SALW and ammunition at its next conference in 2021, and highlights a number of priority areas where practical and sustainable actions can help tackle the problem.

London: Saferworld, 2020. 17p.

By Marcena Hunter, Mukasiri Sibanda, Ken Opala, Julius Kaka and Lucy P. Modi

Today, the artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) sector is governed by increasingly comprehensive legal and regulatory frameworks, and is reliant on transnational supply chains that connect rural mining operations to international gold hubs. However, the increase in illicit activities in gold-rich markets has undermined the potential for this precious commodity to be a catalyst for development in these regional African markets. Effective responses to illicit activity in gold markets must seek to navigate the tension between combating criminality while maximizing the gold sector’s development potential. This requires a nuanced analysis of market dynamics, supply chains and networks. This study unpacks the factors that shape and drive the East and Southern African gold markets. Research covered multiple countries, providing insights into national and regional market dynamics and trade flows. The cross-border regional dynamics of illicit gold supply chains means examination of this issue requires applying a wide lens. South Sudan, Uganda, Kenya and Zimbabwe were selected for field research, with some limited research conducted in South Africa.

Geneva: Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, 2021. 73p.

By Marcena Hunter

Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) in eastern and southern Africa provides economic opportunities to a wide range of actors that cuts across the formal, informal and illicit spheres. ASGM can involve everything from highly vulnerable individuals panning for gold on a subsistence basis to small-scale, semi-industrial operations illegally generating millions of dollars’ worth of gold. Regardless of the form, the vast majority of ASGM is linked to illicit gold markets exploited by criminal actors. The result is ‘a tightly interwoven web of livelihoods, social networks and competition for power and wealth’. This policy guidance, a follow-on from the 2021 report ‘Illicit gold markets in East and Southern Africa’, is intended to be a tool for those who wish to intervene or engage with the ASGM sector and illicit gold markets, including policymakers, government agents, development interventions, civil society, and businesses. Although this policy guidance is designed for eastern and southern Africa, it can be adapted for other regions.

Geneva: Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, 2022. 54p.

By Channing Mavrellis and John Cassara

The People’s Republic of China (PRC or China) plays an extremely impactful role as a source, transit and/or demand country in many of the most widespread and serious transnational crimes. The country is unique in that the government itself engages in certain types of criminal activity—specifically forced labor and intellectual property (IP) rights violations. In addition, the country’s political, economic, and social policies have extensive repercussions on the presence and prevalence of these crimes, both domestically and internationally. Furthermore, the country’s willingness to cooperate and act on these crimes within the global context has been relatively limited. Two important factors to consider when evaluating China’s response to transnational crime are its dynamic, and somewhat forceful, pursuit of development and its authoritarianism. While China has claimed that they have no interest in becoming a global hegemon, there has been no ambiguity about China’s desire to become a geopolitical and economic powerhouse. The country has invested heavily in social and economic development, at home and abroad, and has crafted policies to aggressively support and protect important issues and sectors. At times it has sacrificed potential avenues for improving the efficacy of its fight against different transnational crimes in order to avoid any knock-on impacts that may negatively impact its interests. China is an authoritarian state, and the Chinese Communist Party has significant control over what happens in the country. While there will obviously be actors, such as…..

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  criminals, criminal organizations, and the corrupt, that compete against Beijing’s interests, the government has a monopoly over a fair amount of what happens in the country and the agency to quickly, and severely, respond to undesired actors, activities, and flows, especially in comparison to democratic states. The report’s authors, Channing Mavrellis and John Cassara, scrutinize China’s role in four different transnational crimes—drug trafficking, counterfeiting and IP theft, human trafficking and wildlife trafficking—as well as the illicit financial flows (IFFs) associated with these crimes. It explores the dynamics of these crimes as they relate to China both domestically and internationally; the political, economic, social, and cultural drivers and facilitators to these crimes; laws and regulations related to these crimes; and how the Chinese government has responded to these crimes and IFFs. Finally, the paper provides some focused recommendations for China to improve its response to transnational crimes and IFFs as well as for the U.S. 

Washington, DC: Global Financial Integrity, 2022. 113p.

By Alexander Kupatadze and Lakshmi Kumar

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), sometimes referred to as ‘Globalisation 2.0,’ is a global infrastructure development strategy that aims to fundamentally reshape global trade. The BRI is a key element of the Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ‘Major Country Diplomacy,’ which intends to expand China’s leadership role in global affairs. The BRI covers 149 countries and promises increased connectivity between China and the rest of the world through infrastructure projects, policy coordination, unimpeded trade, financial integration, and people-to-people bonds. Since its inception in 2013, China has already spent an estimated US$200 billion on renewing and modernising infrastructure along the sea and overland trade routes that make up the BRI. However, it is not clear whether the BRI will actually deliver on its promise of achieving deeply transformative economic growth. Much like the impact of the internet when global online connectivity transformed criminality (global cybercrime now generates over US$1.5 trillion per year), the rapid development of infrastructural linkages and logistical corridors has the potential to radically alter the illegal trade landscape. As with the inception of the internet, the BRI has not been designed and implemented with the aversion of crime in mind, which may lead to negative developments including the expansion of illicit supply chains. To understand the consequences of BRI connectivity, we convened a two-day-long workshop at King’s College London with the financial support of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), attended by leading experts on..…

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  illicit trade as well as representatives of both consumer industries (namely tobacco, pharmaceuticals, and fertilisers) and international organisations. This paper is an outcome of the discussion(s) that took place at that same workshop as well as the research of the two co-authors on the BRI and its implications for illicit trade.

Washington, DC: Global Financial Integrity, 2022. 38p.

By Kathryn Westmore

It has long been difficult for prosecutors in the UK to hold corporates to account for criminal behaviour and, in particular, for economic crime-related misconduct. The ‘identification doctrine’ requires that only the acts of the person who represents the company’s ‘directing mind and will’ can be attributed to a company. At the same time, it is recognised that there are certain types of criminal behaviour that can only be carried out within a corporate structure, and which are carried out for the benefit of that corporate entity. Therefore, it is inherently problematic that it is difficult to bring corporate criminal prosecutions. The introduction of ‘failure to prevent’ offences are an attempt to overcome these difficulties. The basis of a failure to prevent offence is simple – to have any defence, an organisation needs to prove that it had ‘reasonable’ or ‘adequate’ procedures in place to prevent an individual associated with it from carrying out a criminal activity. The first failure to prevent offence was introduced in relation to bribery in 2010; two further failure to prevent offences followed in the Criminal Finances Act 2017 related to the facilitation of tax evasion....  

London:  Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI), 2022. 19P.

Edited by Daniel Brombacher, Günther Maihold, Melanie Müller and Judith Vorrath

This anthology examines different dimensions of illicit commodity flows and asks how they can be understood through a geographical lens that looks from the Global South to Europe. By applying a supply chain perspective, it generates insights into how illegal, grey and legal markets merge at certain points in the production chain. This volume seeks to promote a holistic view through a ‘thick description’ of the specific flows and develops practical policy recommendations. It brings together contributions from authors from a wide range of backgrounds, including international scholars, journalists and specialists in both law enforcement and development cooperation 

Baden-Baden, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG,  2022.  412p.

Edited by Magdalena Bainczyk and Agnieszka Kubiak-Cyrul

Although more than 75 years have elapsed since the end of the Second World War, the magnitude of crimes and their long-term effects, caused also by lawyers e.g. in German special courts, make the subject of liability of the state in the context of the Second World War ever topical and valid. Historia magistra vitae est, and the process of learning from history should in this case cover not only the years 1933–1945, but also the entire post-war period. Justice was neither restored nor meted out. One of the reasons for the lack of administration of justice was West Germany's conscious policy of personal continuity after the Second World War. The latter was the topic of the Rosenburg Exhibition – the Federal Ministry of Justice of the Federal Republic of Germany in the Shadow of National Socialist Past. The texts grew out of the context of the exhibition and show the far-reaching consequences of War and Nazi crimes in international relations of a legal nature.

Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2021. 226p.