Europe's cocaine boom gives rise to new laundering schemes

The Wall Street Journal published an excellent article this week on the rise in cocaine smuggling to Europe and the role of the strong euro in fueling another lucrative illicit enterprise: euro laundering.

The article raises several interesting and important issues related to the global trade in cocaine:

• Due to the strength of the euro and increased demand for cocaine in Spain and Italy, Europe has become a more lucrative market for narcotraffickers;
• Consumption of cocaine has soared in Western Europe, much of which is smuggled through West Africa where governments struggle to combat poverty, weak law enforcement, and widespread corruption;
• Spain has become an important center for narcotraffickers intent on disguising the origins of currency gained through illicit activities;
• Consumption of cocaine is on the rise in Spain where today 3% of the population uses the drug, compared with 2.3% in the US; this, combined with reports that a kilo of cocaine in Spain now fetches upwards of $43,000 as compared to $12,000-26,000 in the US, gives the Spanish market the potential to rival, perhaps even surpass, the potency of the US market;
• Spain is an important entry-point for cocaine due to its long shoreline, its proximity to Africa and its shared language with Colombian and other South American traffickers;
• Cocaine bound for Europe first is shipped first to West Africa where it is then sent over land or by water into Europe through Spain. Then the ill-gotten gains (euros) are flown back to South America and laundered through casas de cambio or money exchange businesses. That cash is then exchanged (laundered) by sending the euros to the United States where they are exchanged for other forms of currency as part of a seemingly legitimate business transaction.

To learn more about this laundering process, check out the article "Cocaine Boom in Europe Fuels New Laundering Tactics" by Mark Schoofs and Paulo Prada.

Cocaine seizures drop as traffickers 'shift to semi-submersibles'

US officials say drug traffickers have shifted to semi-submersible craft and other smaller, harder-to-detect boats to elude surveillance, causing a sharp drop in cocaine seizures last year. Officials say seizures of cocaine flowing north out of South America plummeted from 257 metric tons in 2006 to 208 metric tons last year, the second year in a row they have fallen.

Traffickers’ success attributed to their adaptability
Officials who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity acknowledged that they were slow to pick up on the latest change in tactics by drug traffickers. They say their success in tracking and stopping high powered speed boats laden with cocaine forced drug traffickers to find new ways of slipping through the net of radars and air and naval patrols use to catch them. Authorities recognize that traffickers now send out more, less powerful boats with smaller loads of cocaine that blend in with other vessels. They also say that the use of semi-submersible boats is on the rise. "They are very hard to detect," said one official, who added that US authorities intercepted its first semi-submersible in November 2006. Others attribute the decrease in cocaine seizures to the hefty bribes being paid to officials to ensure the safe passage of cocaine shipments.

As supply increases, prices decline
The Belfast Telegraph published a story today about the arrival of cheap, heavily adulterated cocaine in Northern Ireland. The weak U.S. dollar has increased the volume of cocaine shipments from South America to Europe and the drug's declining street value has raised fears that more and more young people will be lured into cocaine use. Northern Ireland has been chosen as a desirable destination for cocaine distribution given the prevalence organized crime syndicates--a result which I suspect is mostly attributed to the unsuccessful demilitarization and reintegration of the IRA and other ex-combatants.

A "dizzying array" of trafficking victims from Eastern Europe

Woman helps to unravel Toronto trafficking in persons ring
By Jeffrey Todd

Update:
A second victim has come forward with information about an alleged international human trafficking ring busted last weekend in Toronto, leading to the arrest of a fourth suspect.

Second victim comes forward in Toronto trafficking ring

Investigators believe the people arrested - three men and three women - were ringleaders involved in luring eastern European women to Canada on false promises of a modeling career and then imprisoning them as sex slaves.

Original post:
The Toronto Star reports that on Thursday afternoon, a woman from Eastern Europe stumbled into a Toronto police station saying that she was a sex slave. The next day, police raided several addresses and arrested six suspects. Three of them now face a slew of charges in what is believed to be an international human trafficking ring involving a dizzying array of victims, suspects and countries.

The victim told police that she responded to an advertisement on the Internet that offered her work as a model in Canada. But when she arrived she was thrown into prostitution. The victims were bought into the country using fake passports, police said. Once they arrived, the victims were forcibly confined and made to work as escorts for the "ringleaders" of the operation.

In November 2007, eight people were arrested, four of whom were from Ontario, for engaging in human trafficking across the U.S. border.

In related news:
Sex trafficking: 'I was sold for £4,500'
By Diane Taylor

The Independent (UK) reports that when Lena Suriane got off the bus that had brought her from her home town of Kaunas in Lithuania to London's Victoria in the winter of 2004, it was not long before she realised she'd been sold to an Albanian pimp. Suriane, 29, who had been living with her mother and two young children in abject poverty, was one day approached by a friendly woman who sympathised with her about the lack of jobs and said she knew of some well-paid work in London. "She hinted that the work was in prostitution. I had tried so hard to find other jobs and my plan was to do it for a while then come back to Lithuania and set up a business or something like that."

She was taken to a house in north London with three other women, each of whom had also been trafficked. "Do you know," said one, another Lithuanian, "that you've just been sold for £4,500?"

The day after her arrival, Suriane was set to work on a daily 12-hour shift, from 11am until 11pm. "On average I had sex with 15 men a day," she says. On one particularly busy day, that number rose to 37. Charges started at £20 for 10 minutes, rising to £140 an hour. The takings were huge but Suriane received just £10 a day.

According to Andrejus Pavlovas, a senior police inspector working in the field of organised crime in Lithuania, most of the women who are trafficked from his country know they will be working in prostitution. What they don't know is that they are likely be held captive, treated badly and not allowed to keep their earnings. "Each trafficking gang has its own style," he says. "Some use psychological violence, some use physical violence – often the two go hand-in-hand."

Drug seizures raise questions about drug trafficking trends

In his book Illicit (2005), Moises Naím argued that migrant smuggling and trafficking in persons was linked to the global drug trade and other well-organized transnational criminal networks. By exploiting the world's vast reserves of potential migrants, drug traffickers align with migrant smugglers and force their "clients" to carry small, valuable packages of narcotics. This flexible approach allows traffickers to move large quantities of goods without all the risk of losing them to anti-drug law enforcement efforts. By using this approach, several "small packages" quickly become a large shipment, and when the cargo is cocaine or heroine its resale value is infinitely greater than the fees paid to the laborers that carried the packages.

Listen to Moises Naím discuss his book Illicit on National Public Radio.

Given the recent large-scale seizures of cocaine in Spain, United States, Ireland, Peru, Colombia and elsewhere, could it be that traffickers are shifting away from sending the "small packages" Naím describes and towards the shipment of much larger cargos? Or are they simply willing to accept the obvious risks associated with this approach? If so, does this also mean that they possess vast reserves of "inventory" and are therefore willing to gamble with a few tons of cocaine here and there? This question comes to mind given the recent large drug busts. For instance:

• Peruvian police reported Sunday that they have confiscated 193 kg of cocaine in an anti-drug operation in the southern province of Ica. The cocaine packed in 180 small bags, worth over $1 million, was found on an empty bus on Friday. The driver was arrested on the spot, said the police.
• Dublin police report that cocaine worth an estimated 1.5 million euro has been seized by police.The raid was part of a series of investigations under Operation Thaw tackling distribution and supply of drugs in Coolock and Darndale. Searches at premises in Grove Lane, Coolock, took place. A gun magazine and ammunition, equipment for mixing cocaine, including a weighing scale and a substantial quantity of mixing agent, were also recovered.
• U.S. Border Patrol agents seized more than 400 pounds of cocaine from a pickup truck on the banks of the Rio Grande. Agency officials estimate the street value of the drugs at more than $15 million, according to a news release from the U.S. Border Patrol. Authorities searched the truck and found the bulk of cocaine. No arrests were made in connection with the seizure. The seizure marks one of several made in recent months. From Oct. 1, 2007 to New Year’s Eve, agents in the Rio Grande Valley Sector seized 1,473.75 pounds of cocaine, which has an estimated street value of more than $47 million, agency officials said.
• In early January, Colombian cocaine smugglers scuttled a U.S.-bound homemade submarine off the country's Pacific coast. It was the second time in a month that Colombian forces stopped an underwater craft which was then sunk by its crew members to destroy their incriminating cargo. In both cases, the smugglers quickly opened the hatches to sink the vessels before they could be boarded by authorities. Both submarines had the capacity to ship 10 to 12 tons of cocaine to the United States.
• In December, a South African court jailed two British men for 30 years for trafficking in cocaine and cannabis worth some 23 million US dollars, the SAPA news agency reported. The men had tried to have the drugs shipped from the nearby eastern city of Durban to Britain, the report said. The 150 kilograms of cocaine worth $21.3 million US dollars was intercepted in a container near Durban while the 8.1 tonne haul of cannabis, worth $1.6 million US was seized by the authorities in Britain at the port of Felixstowe.
  

Photo by Doomsday

National Human Trafficking Awareness Day

Today marks the first annual Human Trafficking Awareness day in the United States. This day intends to raise awareness and vigilance for the millions of victims of trafficking in persons across the globe.

Human trafficking happens all over the world. In the U.S., the Justice Department estimates at least 17,000 people are brought here each year and forced to work in slave-like conditions. Other groups say the number is higher. While estimating the number of victims to trafficking is very difficult, however it is considered to be the fastest-growing criminal industry in the world, projected to be worth about $32 billion.

For coverage of National Human Trafficking Awareness Day, visit National Public Radio.

Also on National Public Radio:

• How, where human trafficking begins
• Selling your own flesh and blood
• The cost of slavery

Trafficking in persons, also known as human trafficking, is considered to be a form of modern-day slavery. It is regarded to the second largest criminal industry in the world, after arms and drug dealing. Traffickers generate billions of dollars in profits every year while victimizing millions of people around the globe.

Trafficked persons are forced or coerced into labor or sexual exploitation. Under international law, all children who are commercially sexually exploited are considered trafficking victims, even if no force or coercion is used. Sex trafficking is one of the most lucrative sectors of the trade in people, and involves sexual exploitation in prostitution or pornography, bride trafficking, and commercial sexual abuse of children. Labor trafficking is widespread not only in situations of domestic servitude and small-scale labor operations, but also in sweatshops and farms that are subcontracted to major multinational corporations.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports that traffickers often lure their victims to the United States with promises of an arranged marriage, financial security or a job opportunity. Once in the clutches of traffickers, victims are often kept from running away by threats that escaping would bring harm to their families.

Related news:

• Vigils being held for victims of trafficking in San Diego
• Florida immigrant advocates call for an end to modern-day slavery
• Developing new approaches to the study of trafficking in persons in Egypt
• Turning to prostitutes to help beat trafficking in India
• Cops arrest six involved in Canadian human trafficking ring
• Man accused of human trafficking in Northern Ireland
• Toronto police charge three men with human trafficking, forced prostitution
  

For more information on trafficking in persons, visit Polaris Project.