Drug trafficking and its impacts have become defining features of politics, governance, and statehood in Guinea-Bissau. While “cocaine politics” is triggering a new era of fragility and instability across the subregion and beyond, the problem is deeply rooted. This paper examines the country’s postcolonial past to better understand the present relationship between drugs and statehood and the role of the international community in Guinea-Bissau. Such an analysis offers insights into potential strategies that might begin the process of delinking these increasingly intractable, interwoven strands…
With the advent of online banking, financial crime has moved from the physical world to the virtual. Today’s villains carry out identity theft, credit card fraud, and siphoning schemes from the comfort of their computer chairs. The evolution of financial crime to the online platform has shifted the financial activities of transnational organized crime networks, which now take full advantage of the system to perform illicit internet transfers, hide funds, and engage in fraudulent schemes. Some law enforcement officials are uncovering new transnational organized crime networks, whose activities…
On election night, California voters passed Proposition 35, which increases penalties for those convicted of human trafficking. California is among the top four destinations for human trafficking in the United States. According to a recent study by California’s Attorney General, 1,277 people have been identified as victims of human trafficking and forced labor in the last two years in California.
Globally, the $32 billion-per-year human trafficking industry is estimated to affect 2.4 million people. This April, the Director of the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime asked…
It has become a truism to describe transnational problems as interconnected. However, a recent joint report “Green Carbon, Black Trade: Illegal Logging, Tax Fraud and Laundering in the World’s Tropical Forests”by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and INTERPOL shows that illegal logging is a case that truly demonstrates the need for cooperation across sectors to reach efficient solutions. No single solution will be enough; action will be needed at each stage of the supply and demand chain at both local and international levels. Many of the proposed solutions have major shortcomings…
Vanda Felbab-Brown, an expert on illicit economies and international and internal conflict management, analyzes the unprecedented pace at which the illicit drug trade is expanding. Her perspective identifies common mistakes in antidrug-designed policies and stresses the need for governments to reprioritize their objectives. She debunks established myths around the commonality of drug trade and its impact on society. Often, policies are not successful because public officials do not effectively identify the central issues surrounding drug violence or the consequences of implementing antidrug trade…