Transnational Crime and the Developing World

Box 1. A Brief History of Drug Trafficking in Mexico
Beginning in the 1970s, cocaine from South America entered the United States principally through
Florida via the Caribbean. Intensified interdiction along the Caribbean route pushed cocaine smuggling
to the Central American-Mexican land corridor. While Mexican DTOs were originally paid cash for each
kilo they smuggled, Colombian traffickers began to pay them in cocaine. This transition “realigned the
power dynamics along the narcotics supply chain in the Americas, because it allowed the Mexicans to
stop serving as logistical middlemen and invest in their own drugs instead.” 36
With greater leverage, Mexican DTOs have overtaken most trafficking activities down to cocaine processing.
For DTOs, a greater role may increase risk, but it also brings greater rewards. Mexican DTOs
have diversified their businesses, broadening their trades in heroin and cannabis as well as establishing
a significant market for ATS production.
Nigerian OCGs have expanded into the production of synthetic drugs, principally methamphetamine.
The manufacture and export of methamphetamine in West Africa has been successful in large part
due to weak chemical and pharmaceutical controls, porous borders, and experienced OCGs with
established routes, as well as weak rule of law and governments limited by insufficient technical and
financial support. 37 Nigerian OCGs have in fact received help from Mexican DTOs: in March 2016,
Nigerian authorities arrested four Mexican nationals who were allegedly serving as consultants in the
establishment of a large-scale methamphetamine lab in Delta state that was capable of producing up to
four tons each week. 38 The majority of the methamphetamine is destined for high-value markets in East
and Southeast Asia, but enough is remaining in the region to stoke increased domestic consumption,
endangering public health. 39
East Africa, particularly Tanzania and Kenya, is an established transit point for Afghan heroin traveling
via the southern route from Pakistan and Iran to European markets. Heroin was traditionally transported
along air routes, but the number of maritime shipments has greatly expanded beginning around 2010,
allowing larger consignments to be smuggled. 40 In November 2014, two seizures off the coast of Kenya
totaled over 700 kilograms, signaling the high volume of drugs that are being moved along this route. 41
The transit of drugs through countries and/or regions can nurture the growth of domestic consumer
markets. Heroin is frequently abused through intravenous injection, which can contribute to the spread
of blood-borne infections. The UNODC estimates that as of 2013 more than half (55 percent) of African
opiate users are located in East Africa, which has the second highest rate of HIV prevalence in the
world. 42 This large increase in heroin trafficking is a worrisome development for East Africa as it presents
a serious threat to public health in the region as well as the continent.
Another development in the global illegal drug market is that the overall use of synthetic NPS has greatly
increased over the last decade, in part a result of the ease of manufacture and accessibility. There is an
ever-growing range of NPS due to frequent modifications to chemical designs by manufacturers who
seek to circumvent legal restrictions. Authorities have detected more than 380 new substances in the
last five years, with 100 alone in 2015. 43 When manufacturers invent NPS faster than legislators can
regulate them, these so-called “legal highs” technically remain lawful substances and, as such, are often
36
Patrick Radden Keefe, “Cocaine Incorporated,” The New York Times, June 15, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/magazine/how-a-mexican-drug-cartel-makes-its-billions.html.
37
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Transnational Organized Crime in West Africa, 20; United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World
Drug Report 2013 (Vienna: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2013), 23, http://www.unodc.org/wdr2013/.
38
Quenton King, “Four Mexicans Arrested in Meth ‘Super Lab’ Bust in Nigeria,” InSight Crime, March 16, 2016, http://www.insightcrime.org/newsbriefs/four-mexicans-arrested-in-meth-super-lab-bust-nigeria.
39
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Transnational Organized Crime in West Africa, 23.
40
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, The Afghan Opiate Trade and Africa: A Baseline Assessment (Vienna: United Nations Office on Drugs
and Crime, 2016), 22, https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/Afghanistan/Afghan_Opiate_trade_Africa_2016_web.pdf.
41
“The Smack Track,” The Economist, January 17, 2015, http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21639560-east-african-states-arebeing-undermined-heroin-smuggling-smack-track.
42
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Afghan Opiate Trade and Africa, 21, 44.
43
European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction and Europol, EU Drug Markets Report 2016: In-Depth Analysis (Luxembourg: European
Union, 2016), 141, http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/publications/eu-drug-markets/2016/online.
Global Financial Integrity
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