NCJ Number
196439
Journal
Crime & Justice International Volume: 18 Issue: 63 Dated: June 2002 Pages: 5-6,23,24
Date Published
June 2002
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article examines emerging trends in transnational drug production and trafficking by traditional drug organizations and what is being done to counter them.
Abstract
North America has traditionally been the point at which the drug routes end. The Colombian drug cartels have made most of their profit with cocaine on the American scene; the Mexican drug cartels have made their profit with marijuana in the United States; the Golden Triangle has reaped its share of the profits with heroin in the United States; and the outlaw motorcycle clubs have made their profit through the production and shipment of amphetamines and methamphetamines in both the United States and Canada. What is changing is the method by which these groups are getting their products into the destination countries and the types of drugs that are in demand. To move cocaine to the United States, the Colombians have established vast networks with the Mexican cartels. Similarly, as the Colombians develop ties with the Mexicans, they are also developing ties with the Sicilian and Russian Mafias and other transnational organized crime groups throughout Europe. They are also establishing contacts in Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States to launder money. The Colombian cartels are cooperating with Asian heroin traffickers, occasionally exchanging heroin for cocaine, and they are studying the feasibility of growing poppies in the Andes Mountains. The major heroin trafficking networks of Asia have established ties with Nigerian groups for increased efficiency in the international trafficking of heroin, and the Nigerians are contracted out through use as "mules" to smuggle drugs into the United States, usually by swallowing condoms filled with heroin. Regarding types of drugs in demand, one of the most recent developments in the United States has been the heightened popularity of designer drugs. The Mexican drug cartels have been moving into the designer drug market by producing and shipping to the United States mass quantities of a relatively cheap street form of valium, called Mexican Valium. Another emerging trend is the production and use of the designer drug "ecstasy," which is a mix of cocaine, heroin, and a chemical bonding agent. Intervention efforts have been hampered by underfunding differing drug control strategies across countries, rampant corruption in countries that produce and export illegal drugs, and the lack of an effective legal infrastructure in nascent democracies. International cooperation and coordination must be improved if emerging drug trends are to be addressed. 23 references