Illegal drug trade

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These lollipops were found to contain heroin when inspected by the US DEA

The trade of illegal drugs has always existed, but has become even more serious to various nations and governmental organizations in recent times. Seeing no end in the trade of drugs in sight, the United Nations has expressed its frustration with the trade by calling it a "global problem."

Introduction

In jurisdictions where legislation restricts or prohibits the sale of certain popular drugs, it is common for an illegal drugs trade to develop. For example, the United States Congress has identified a number of controlled substances which each have corresponding illegal drug trades.

Because of physical dependence, the high cost of illegal addictive drugs is one of the major causes of crime. Some estimates placed the value of the global trade in illegal drugs at around four hundred billion U.S. dollars in the year 2000.

Major consumer countries include the United States and European nations, although consumption is world-wide.

Production

Illegal drugs can be broken down into two major classes: those extracted from plants, and those synthesized from chemical precursors. For the first class, such as cannabis and cocaine, the growing area is important, and substantial farming is needed for mass production. For the second class, such as MDMA and methamphetamine, access to chemical precursors is most important.

Major drug farming and manufacturing countries include

Colombia and other Latin American countries, mainly for cocaine
the Asian Golden Triangle of border areas of Thailand, Burma and Laos, for opium
the United States, for methamphetamine
Afghanistan and border areas of Pakistan
Parts of Canada for cannabis

Synthetic illegal drugs can either be manufactured in the country of consumption, or abroad.

For the most part, the manufacturing of botanically-based drugs consists of several layers which may be isolated or conglomerated: growing and harvesting, initial botanical processing, chemical processing, and final processing.

The initial botanical processing prepares the plant for chemical processing, by cutting, drying if applicable, separating parts with a low concentration, and etc. The chemical processing extracts the drug, and the final processing sizes it, provides assurance of quality, packages it, and may convert it to another form (such as crack from cocaine). My name is HOV, H to da OV. I used to move snowflakes by da OZ, i guess even back then you could call me, the CEO of da ROC- uh straight out the frying pan into da fire, i be the, music biz number 1 supplya, flya then the piece of paper bearing my name, i got the hottest chick in the game wearin my chain.

Demand

For some drugs, large-scale drug production is not located where those drugs are illegal — rather, those drugs are smuggled into the region for illegal trade. Other drugs are often produced locally, either because they can be grown surreptitiously or manufactured with common ingredients.

Regardless of the source, high demand for illegal drugs on the black market leads to the formation of complex illegitimate production, smuggling, and distribution networks that span national borders and generate billions of dollars of revenue. According to the United Nations, the Global Drug Trade is estimated to be worth over 300 Billion U.S. Dollars.

Distribution

File:Balininelawrenceevidence.jpg

Police evidence photograph showing heroin strapped to the body of a drug smuggler.

There are two primary means of distribution: a hierarchy and a hub-and-spoke layout. A hierarchical arrangement includes the manufacturer who uses his own men to smuggle, wholesale and store, and distribute the narcotics. A hub-and-spoke layout takes advantage of local gangs and other localized criminal organizations. The cartel is at the center, with satellite organizations that may provide certain services to the manufacturer, and then there is a plurality of distinct groups, each with its own chain.

Smuggling is typically accomplished via small boats and yachts, air vehicles, and by gangs paid with some of the merchandise.

Wholesalers routinely accept the materials from the smugglers (often more than one and of varying types), cut it, and sell it to the distribution chain or chains. For the most part, wholesalers are not individual people; it is typically an expansionary endeavor by already-established rogue enterprises, such as Mafias and, rarely, gangs. The more experienced instances may re-manufacture the wares to alter the drug's purity, or altering the chemical composition of the material (such as turning cocaine into crack or freebase). Wholesalers may also manufacture and disseminate general contraband, including non-narcotic controlled substances (like date rape drugs), paraphernalia, or any panoptic, high-demand item that they may receive.

Distribution may traverse a selectively chosen group of cartel employees who purchase from a wholesaler and utilize a prominent population of "mules," or it may encompass a heavy chain of users who are selling to finance their own use.

Network

As with legal commerce, the illegal drug trade is multi-layered and often multi-national, with layers of manufacturers, processors, distributors, wholesalers and retailers. Financing is also important, generally involving money laundering to hide the source of the illegal profits. All of these are made more complex by their illegality, but the normal laws of economics still apply, with the efforts of law enforcement regarded by the drug trade as an extra business cost.

The drug trade is a very fragmented industry with the most popular product, cannabis, being grown locally by many individuals with little collaboration. Similarly, drugs like LSD with very low profit margins are (traditionally) sold more for philanthropic reasons than for profit.

Drug cartels

The most well known recent drug cartels are the Cali and Medellín cartels in Colombia and the Juarez, Tijuana and Tamaulipas cartels in Mexico.

The main organized drug cartels deal with cocaine, heroin, MDMA (ecstasy), and methamphetamine, and it is these that are the primary focus of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration. Largely manufactured drugs also induce the foundation of satellite organizations that supply some of the needed chemical precursors.

Mexican cartels

Since the late 1980s, narcotics trafficking organizations headed and comprised of Mexican nationals became the dominant force of the illicit drug trade in the United States. Mexican trafficking organizations usurped control from Colombian trafficking organizations.

In the early 1980s, cocaine emerged as a drug of choice for many Americans and its use became prevalent through-out the socio-economic spectrum. Initially, Colombians were responsible for growing, processing and distributing cocaine in the U.S., but their strongholds were limited to South Florida and New York along with other metropolitan areas that housed smaller Colombian populations. As demand for larger quantities of cocaine began to take hold in the U.S. in the late 1980s, Colombian traffickers came to rely on Mexican organizations to assist with the transportation and distribution of cocaine through-out the U.S. After a period of time, powerful Mexican cartels realized that they could more effectively handle the smuggling and distribution of ton-quantities of cocaine in the U.S.

Colombians had been limited to predominantly a Caribbean smuggling route into South Florida. Mexicans, on the other hand, had access to an expansive 2,000 mile border with the Southwestern U.S. and then a vast network of Mexican immigrants residing in major metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles and Chicago, and later through-out a number of large and small communities in all corners of the U.S.

The ample number of Mexican nationals residing in the U.S. occurred as a result of a bombardment of migrant workers in search of higher-paying jobs and a better life for themselves and their families, but the increased Mexican presence also brought with it a large number of Mexican narcotics traffickers that came to the U.S. with one specific purpose: to sell drugs and earn a significant profit in doing so. Drug statistics estimate that twenty-three metric tons of cocaine is smuggled into the U.S. annually, two-thirds of which enter across the U.S./Mexican border. Mexican black-tar heroin, which is produced in Mexico and smuggled into the U.S. predominantly by Mexican nationals is the most frequently consumed heroin in the western and Midwestern U.S. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) estimates that 80% of the methamphetamine in the U.S. is either manufactured in Mexico or is manufactured in the U.S. by Mexican national drug traffickers operating under the direction of Mexican drug kingpins. These illicit drug sales in the U.S. have resulted in a boom of revenues for Mexico. In fact, after petroleum revenues, the second biggest revenue source for Mexico comes from illegal alien Mexican nationals sending money into Mexico from the U.S., and a significant part of those monies are illicit drug proceeds.

In the last ten years, U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) statistics indicate that the percentage of Latin American non-U.S. citizens that were federally arrested in the U.S. for illegal drug offenses has increased from the low 20 percentile to over 30 percent as of 2003. For example, in 1999, regarding all federal drug arrests, 26.8% were non-U.S. citizens and 45.5% were Hispanic. Other DOJ BJS statistics showed that "in addition to immigration offenses, U.S. attorneys prosecuted an increased number of non-citizens for other crimes, especially for drug trafficking, which increased from 1,799 cases in 1985 to 7,803 in 2000." [1]

Other noteworthy facts, according to National Criminal Justice Reference Service: "Of noncitizens prosecuted in Federal courts during 1994, 55 percent were in the United States legally. During 1984, about 35 percent of noncitizens prosecuted in Federal courts were charged with a drug offense. By 1994, the proportion charged with a drug offense increased to 45 percent." [2]

Illegal trade of legal drugs

Legal drugs like tobacco can be the subject of smuggling and illegal trading if the taxes are high enough to make it profitable.

Prescription drugs

Some prescription drugs are also available by illegal means, eliminating the need to manufacture and process the drugs. (Prescription opiates for example, are sometimes much stronger than heroin found on the street.) They are sold primarily via stolen or unscrupulous prescriptions sold by illegitimate medical practices and occasionally from Internet sale. However, it is much easier to control traffic in prescription drugs than in illegal drugs because the source can often be readily found and neutralized.

Internet and controlled substances

"No Prescription Websites" (NPWs) offer to sell controlled substances without a valid prescription. NPWs were first recognized by the U.S. Justice Department in 1999, indicating that such sites had been operating at least through the late 1990s. NPWs enable dealers and users to complete transactions without direct contact. While many NPWs accept credit cards, others only accept cash thereby further reducing any paper trail. Many NPWs are hosted in countries in which specific categories of controlled substances are locally legal (e.g. prescription opioids in Mexico), but because of the global nature of the internet, NPWs are able to do business with customers around the globe. In addition to prescription opioids, stimulants, steroids and sedatives, marijuana seeds are also readily available, while marijuana generally is only advertised in chat rooms and forums. To date, no websites have been found offering directly to sell heroin, methamphetamines, or cocaine, however the police have uncovered several instances of dealers/drug rings using Craigslist personal ads to solicit drug buisness using code words and phrases. All other categories of drugs are readily available online.

2004 saw the conclusion of Operation Web Tryp, focusing on companies selling "research chemicals" on the Internet.

Violent resolutions

Because disputes cannot be resolved through legal means, participants at every level of the illegal drug industry are liable to compete with one another through violence. Some of the largest and most violent drug trafficking organizations are known as drug cartels. For this (and other reasons, namely the inability for governments to control, regulate and tax distribution), many have argued that the illegality of popular drugs worsens the problems around these substances.

Trade of specific drugs

Anabolic steroids

For detailed information on illegal drug trade pertaining to anabolic steroids, see the Anabolic steroids article.

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Cannabis

For detailed information on cannabis, including production and distribution and trade, see the Cannabis article.

Because of the Cannabis' lucrative aspects, it remains one of the most popular drugs for trade. The potential for profit is one of the reasons trade in Cannabis is high.

LSD

For more information on LSD, including information on its trade, trafficking, and distribution, see LSD.

LSD (also known as "acid") is a highly potent psychedelic drug which is synthesized artificially. The availability of LSD in the United States dropped sharply circa 2000, when two distributors alleged by the government to have been manufacturing 95% of all LSD available in the US were captured (see LSD in the United States), but availability has started to rise again (possibly due to law enforcement focusing more heavily on methamphetamine).

Psilocybin mushrooms

For more information on the trade of Psilocybin mushrooms, see Psychedelic mushrooms.

The trade of mushrooms containing psilocybin is profitable, but less common than the trade of other drugs. While psilocybin mushrooms can be found in the wild in many areas, this is not the typical method through which they are acquired, as it is inefficient and very few people are knowledgeable or confident enough to be able to positively identify them.

Alcohol

For more information on alcohol, including the trade of alcohol, see the main article on Alcohol.

In some areas of the world, the trade of alcohol is strictly prohibited. For example, Pakistan bans the trade because of its large Muslim population. Similarly, Saudi Arabia forbids the importation of alcohol into its kingdom.

Tobacco

This part deals with the trade of tobacco. For more information on tobacco, see Tobacco.

The illegal trade of tobacco is motivated primarily by increasingly heavy taxation. When tobacco products such as name-brand cigarettes are traded illegally, the cost is as little as one third that of retail price due to the lack of taxes being piled on as the product is sold from manufacturer to buyer to retailer. Meanwhile, the sale of tobacco, legal or not, seems motivated almost entirely by addiction, with social/recreational motives being the cause of initial consumption.

The source of the illegally-traded tobacco is often the proceeds from other crimes, such as store and transportation robberies.

Sometimes, the illegal trade of tobacco is motivated by differences in taxes in two jurisdictions, including smuggling across international borders. Smuggling of tobacco from the US into Canada has been problematic, and sometimes political where trans-national native communities are involved in the illegal trade.

Cocaine

For more on the trafficking, production, and distribution of Cocaine, see the main article on Cocaine.

Producing a large percentage of the world's cocaine, South America is a starting point for the trade of cocaine. According to the Federation of American Scientists, the "heart of the international cocaine trade" is in South America. With the help of organized crime, cocaine trade is a promising business venture for drug kingpins despite the war on drugs.

The average cost per gram of cocaine in the US is $50, though it varies by region. Crack costs the same per gram, but a whole rock only weighs 0.1 to 0.2 grams.

Opium

For more on opium, see the main article on Opium.

Illicit trade in opium is relatively rare. Major smuggling organizations prefer to further refine opium into heroin, since a given quantity of heroin is worth much more than an equivalent amount of opium, so heroin is more profitable.

Heroin

For information on the trade and production of heroin and more, see Heroin.

Heroin smuggled into the United States and Europe. Purity levels vary greatly by region with, for the most part, Northeastern cities having the most pure heroin in America (according to a recently released report by the DEA, Elizabeth and Newark, New Jersey, have the purest street grade heroin in the country).

Methamphetamine

For more on the trade of methamphetamines, see Methamphetamine.

In some areas of the United States, the trade of methamphetamines is rampant. Because of the ease in production and its addiction rate, methamphetamines are a favorite amongst many drug distributors.

The average cost per gram of methamphetamine in the US is $100, though it varies by region.

References