Author: Hartelius, Jonas
Title: Narcoterrorism
Summary: The concept of “narcoterrorism” was introduced in 1983 by the Peruvian President Belaunde Terry to designate terrorist‐like attacks against his country’s drug enforcement police. Drug criminals utilized methods from political assailants to influence the politics of the country by causing terror and obstructing justice. Later, ideology-driven terrorist organizations took up illegal drug trade as a source of income. Over the years, several definitions of “narcoterrorism” have been introduced. The widest definition is given by the Oxford dictionary (1999): “Terrorism associated with the trade in illicit drugs”. It does not indicate whether ideological and political or, criminal and commercial motives are the main driving factors. The simplest way of describing narcoterrorism is, perhaps, as a part of an illegal complex of drugs, violence and power, where the illegal drug trade and the illegal exercise of power have become aggregated in such a way that they threaten democracy and the rule of law. The manifestations of narcoterrorism are manifold and far reaching: increased drug production; wide spread abuse of drugs; serious drug-related crime; threats to the rule of law, public security, and public health; money laundering; infiltration of the legal economy; and financing of terrorism. It has been estimated that the FARC guerilla of Colombia has a net profit from drugrelated crime (including the “taxation” and “protection” of the illegal cocaine trade) of at least 300 million USD every year. The annual total income from the drug trade for movements such as al‐Qaeda has been estimated by the U.N. to be 2.4 billion USD. Twelve of the 28 organizations, which in October 2001 were listed as terrorist organizations by the U.S. State Department, were stated to be involved in the illegal drug trade, ranging from Sendero Luminoso of Peru to the “Tamil Tigers” of Sri Lanka. Narcoterrorism represents another step in the development of organized drug crime in the postwar period. It surpasses the traditional drug syndicates and drug cartels in being much more autonomous and having paramilitary strength. Yet another step is represented by “narcostates”. A narcostate is a state (or region), where the operators of the drug trade through their economic, political and paramilitary strength influence the exercise of power by the central government. Current examples are Afghanistan and Colombia. The debate on countermeasures against narcoterrorism is parallel to the debate on countermeasures against the global illegal drug trade. The consumer countries, who are mainly industrial or post-industrial countries, locate the problem with the producer countries and their production and distribution of illegal drugs. They call for elimination of the problem “at source”, e.g. by crop replacement or by police and customs action against the illegal production and distribution of drugs. The producer countries, who mainly are developing countries, point to the demand in the consumer countries as the driving force for the illegal trade. They call for the consumer countries to reduce their demand in order to dry up the industry, e.g. by prevention, treatment and local drug enforcement.
Details: New York: EastWest Institute; Stockholm, Swedish Carnegie Institute, 2008. 36p.
Source: Internet Resource: Policy Paper 3/2008: Accessed April 16, 2013 at: mercury.ethz.ch
Year: 2008
Country: International
URL:
Shelf Number: 128380
Keywords:
Drug TraffickingDrug Trafficking ControlIllegal Drug TradeNarcoterrorismTerrorism |
