NCJ Number
100665
Date Published
1986
Length
10 pages
Annotation
Some terrorist groups exploit drug trafficking to gain money, and some South American organized crime drug traffickers use terrorist tactics to counter drug law enforcement efforts.
Abstract
The U.S. State Department, in testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, cited instances where insurgent organizations which frequently use terrorist tactics have become involved directly or indirectly with narcotics production and trafficking for economic and perhaps political purposes. Also in testimony before the subcommittee the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration acknowledges trafficker-terrorist cooperation but does not view terrorist groups as significant traffickers. Testimony in subcommittee hearings overlooked criminal organizations' increasing use of violence for political effect in the manner of terrorists. Criminal drug traffickers have used violence to influence U.S. and other national governmental policy regarding drug law enforcement and have often used political rhetoric to justify violence against U.S. citizens. Their ultimate goal, however, is to preserve and expand their profitmaking drug operations. Mutual assistance between guerrilla groups and organized crime may well strengthen insurgencies and act as a destabilizing influence against governments of jurisdictions with developed drug networks. 16 notes.