In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, the federal government's approach to combating drug production and trade beyond our borders—the subject of this chapter—has come to merge with the war on terror. The principal agency charged with this effort is the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (which abbreviates…
According to the United Nations' International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), only a very small portion of drug wealth actually ends up in underdeveloped countries (Report of the International Narcotics Control Board for 2004, http://www.incb.org/incb/en/annual_report_2004.html). Only one cent of every dollar spent on drugs at the street level by a user ends up in the hands of a farmer who…
The federal effort internationally is concentrated on what INL calls the Andean Ridge, the northwestern part of South America where Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, running north to south, touch the Pacific and where land-locked Bolivia lies east of Peru. According to the INL, an estimated 90% of all cocaine and 40% of heroin entering the United States comes from Colombia. The remaining cocaine comes …
Other countries are frequently reluctant to cooperate with the United States to stop drug traffickers. In the Caribbean Basin, while most of the islands have bilateral agreements with the United States, these agreements are limited to maritime matters that permit American ships to seize traffickers in the territorial waters of particular Caribbean islands. Other problems revolve around the transit…
To promote international cooperation to control drug production and trafficking, the United States uses the drug certification process, which involves the threat of, or application of, sanctions for noncompliance. Sanctions range from suspension of U.S. foreign assistance and preferential trade benefits to curtailment of air transportation. Another major sanction is public criticism for failing th…
The federal budget request to Congress for all drug control activities for fiscal year 2005 was $12.6 billion. (See Table 7.1.) The two largest components of the requested overall program were treatment, including research ($3.7 billion, 29.4%) and domestic law enforcement ($3.2 billion, 25.3%). Again, still looking at the big picture, the majority of federal funds are dedicated to stopping the su…
The goal of the international "war on drugs" is to stop the flow of a product that is in high demand, generally cheap to produce, and offers enormous profits. While certain traffickers may dominate for a time, the drug trade is generally characterized by a large number of participants. Capturing one or two major figures or hundreds of lesser traffickers does little to slow the trade.…
Money laundering is a special aspect of the war on drugs. Simply put, money laundering is the attempt to make funds earned illegally appear as if they were earned legally. The cash that drug traffickers collect, usually in small-denomination bills (five, tens, and twenties), must be deposited in banks so that the funds can be transferred, paid out again, spent, or invested. Traffickers cannot simp…
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