Drivers and facilitators of drug markets

• Author: European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EU body or agency), Europol (EU body or agency)
• Pages: 60-77

60

e drug market is globally complex, highly adaptable

and innovative. e growing transport infrastructure and

mobility of people are reected in increasingly globally

integrated drug production and tracking networks.

In addition, the use of the internet and the eect of

information technology on all segments of society

have meant new transformational opportunities for

organised crime in anumber of essential areas, including

logistics, criminal cooperation and nancial ows. e

use of encryption— asmall subset of the impact of the

internet— makes it easier to engage in illicit activities,

atrend exacerbated by both the cross-border nature

of internet activities and the challenge of enforcing

constraints on online behaviour (Figure2.1).

Globalisation

Globalisation is the process by which organisations

become globally interconnected through networks of

communication, trade and transportation of goods and

people. is process has asignicant eect on illicit drug

markets, as the actors involved in them seek to harness

these developments and achieve similar benets to those

in the legal economy.

Transportation and logistics

Infrastructure development and transportation technology

are fundamentally important factors that continue to

have asignicant impact on illicit drug markets and their

wider ramications. Innovation in transportation and

logistics enables cheaper, more ecient and safer (thanks

to decreasing inspections) organised crime operation

and movement of large quantities of illicit drugs without

disruption.

CHAPTER 2

Drivers and facilitators

of drug markets

Figure 2.1

Key drivers and facilitators of drug markets

Online markets

Social

networks and

smartphone apps

New techniques in

production and

smuggling

Firearms and

other weapons

Fraudulent

documentation

Encrypted

communication

deivces

Transportation

and logistics

Criminal

cooperation

Globalisation

Technology

and

innovation

Criminal tools

EU DRUG MARKETS REPORT

61

e transportation methods used are diverse and evolving,

and are inuenced by arange of factors, including the

geographical locations of producer, destination and transit

countries, and historical ties and cultural links between

them. Some modes of transport, such as container ships,

are able to transport large quantities at atime, while

others focus on the movement of large numbers of small

quantities, as when couriers are used to smuggle drugs on

commercial ights.

Our understanding of the relative importance of dierent

routes and modes of transport is largely obtained from drug

seizures and so is inevitably skewed. However, based on

open sources (73 heroin and 239 cocaine global seizures

for the European market, identied between March 2017

and April 2018; see Chapter 9), the majority (78%) of the

heroin shipments seized appeared to have travelled by

land, while just under half (44%) of the cocaine shipments

were intercepted on maritime routes (Figure2.2).

e exploitation of maritime routes constitutes agrowing

threat. More than 750 million 20-foot equivalent units(8)

are transported by sea every year, accounting for 90%

of the global cargo trade. Fewer than 2% of shipping

containers globally are ever screened (UNRIC, 2018).

Ninetyper cent of the EU’s external trade and 40%

of its internal trade is transported by sea (European

Council, 2018). Large container ports in Europe and

other continents are being increasingly exploited by drug

trackers for bulk transportation. For example, in 2017,

the port of Antwerp, the busiest in Europe after Rotterdam,

saw incoming trac of up to 3.5 million maritime shipping

containers, of which only around 1% were inspected

(Schneider, 2018). Except for abrief fall in 2009-10, at

atime of nancial crisis in large parts of the world, the

number of containers moving through these two ports has

generally been increasing for the last decade (Figure2.3).

Recent years have seen diversication in the methods

for maritime drug tracking, as shown in Figure2.4.

Newmethods have been developed that allow larger

quantities of drugs to be transported in individual

consignments. e choice of method by drug-tracking

OCGs would typically involve an element of risk

management and mitigation (Boerman et al., 2017).

(8) A20-foot equivalent unit represents the cargo capacity of astandard

multimodal container.

Another aspect of globalisation is the digitalisation of

international logistics planning. e key role played by

information technology in controlling and managing trac

ows at air and sea ports has increased the importance

to criminals of having access to automated systems. ey

may obtain such access either through the cooperation

of sta or by hacking into relevant computer networks.

Furthermore, looking forward, it is conceivable that entire

logistical chains can be automated and thus vulnerable to

exploitation.

Figure 2.2

Mode of transport for global tracking of heroin and

cocaine for the European market: number of seizures

for each mode, March 2017 to April 2018

Cocaine

Maritime Land Air Mail

35 %

1 %

44 %

20 %

78 %

Heroin

7 %

15 %

Source: EMCDDA open source information database.

Figure 2.3

Container trac at ve major European ports, 2007-17

14 000

Twenty-foot equivalent unit

(thousands)

2007 2009 2011 2 013 2015

2017

6 000

2 000

8 000

10 000

0

4 000

Rotterdam

Valencia

12 000

Bremerhaven

Antwerp Hamburg

Source: Eurostat (2019a).

Note: e number of containers is based on a20-foot equivalent unit, the

most common international standardised container type, including incoming,

outgoing and empty containers handled.

CHAPTER 2

I

Drivers and facilitators of drug markets