Globalization of Crime: Drug Trafficking - Research Paper Example

Globalization of Crime: Drug Trafficking Abstract The primary intention of this particular study is to evaluate and gain a comprehensive understanding regarding the issue of drug trafficking and the impact of globalization on the management style drug trafficking organizations. The paper will also intend to include a comparison amid the US drug trafficking organizations with the other organizations operating in different geographical locations of the world. As per the analysis, it has been gained that the after the advent of the globalization drug trafficking organizations have transformed significantly. In the recent times, these organizations are seen to be adopting systematic and innovative organizational structure for managing their activities. It has also been observed that drug trafficking organizations in the US vary significantly with organizations in the other nations. Nonetheless, the transformation in the management style of the drug trafficking organizations is ascertained to lay considerable impact on the law enforcement agencies in the US. Despite the impact, laws enforcement agencies in US have been able to control and curtail the operations of drug trafficking organizations. Still, effort needs to be exerted to completely eradicate the operations of the drug trafficking organizations. Introduction Drug trafficking is an international illegal trade process that involves cultivation, propagation and sales of substances that are prohibited under the legal system1. In the United States (US), drug trafficking has been significantly growing which in turn have posed a huge challenge for the law enforcement agencies in the nation. Over the past few decades, US has been the major hub for drug traffickers as it considered as the largest market in the world for selling illicit drugs on a large scale. As per the U.S. customs service, every year drug traffickers use flights, ships, vehicles and other means of transportation for supplying large volume of drugs into the nation which includes marijuana, MDMA, cocaine, heroin and other sorts of drugs. It has been revealed that majority of the drug traffickers belong from a criminal group who undertake this illegal trading process through South American regions. Drugs are smuggled into the US via numerous routes, which involves Mexican land routes and marine routes. New York has been the drug distribution hub for drug traffickers. This in turn has adversely influenced academic institutions all over the US as these drugs are supplied in schools and colleges as well2. Besides, it has been observed that globalization had laid significant impact on the management style and the structure of drug trafficking organizations. The paper intends to identify the impact of globalization on organizational management of drug trafficking organizations. In addition, the paper compares and contrasts the organizational management styles found in the United States and compares them with countries that cause a law enforcement impact on the United States. Besides consequences of criminal justice, policies will be assessed in the paper. Impact of Drug Trafficking on Organizational Management Drug trafficking is the widespread organized crime prevalent in the US. Large number of drug trafficking organizations operates in the US and other parts of the world driven with the objective of making huge profits. However, over the last decade significant transformation has been seen in the management style of drug trafficking organizations. The changes in the management structure of these drug trafficking organizations is largely been rooted to the consequences of globalization and evolution of new and innovative communication technologies. In the era of globalization, drug trafficking organizations are identified to adopt many of the business practices and management styles. It has been observed that impact of globalization on drug trafficking organizations has resulted in expansion of their activities beyond the national border towards becoming transitional. Besides, these organizations are ascertained to restructure and decentralize to a considerable extent. In general, it can be stated that the drug trafficking organizations have become globalized3. It has been further observed that drug trafficking organizations are embracing innovative organizational structure, which has imposed considerable challenges for the law enforcement bodies. The impact of globalization on drug trafficking organizations is evidently seen in terms of their characteristics. Notably, these organizations are seen to be adopting formal hierarchy. Formal hierarchies clearly define the level of authority and delineate the responsibility that is required to be performed by subordinates. Each individual based on the rank is responsible for overseeing the lower office. The drug trafficking organizations are currently relies on the rationale that governs placing the most competent individual in each position. Unlike top-down decision making in general business organizations, the decision-making authority in these organizations rests in the hand of single individual. On the other hand, more complex drug trafficking organizations also embrace horizontal structure for managing their activities. However, organizations adopting horizontal structure often exhibit less coordination across their units.4 Moreover, the drug trafficking organizations with complex structure also observed to rely upon written statement rules. These organizations are identified to use the set of rules for defining responsibilities as well as operating procedures to carry out their activities. The structure of these organizations in the current scenario is firmly embedded towards accomplishing efficiency their operations. Correspondingly, these organizations can be seen to engage in formulating broad goals and create positions that best define the approach for attaining the stated goals. Apart from this, in complex organizations communication of messages are identified to flow through appropriate channels. The communication is generally informal in nature due to the reason that there exist less personal interactions between the individuals. The rationale model of complex organizations often causes difficulties for these organizations to adapt quickly to the dynamic environment and due to centralized decision-making process across, failure risk is quite high. These recruitment and promotions in these organizations relies less on merit basis rather relationships factor is given more importance5. On the other hand, drug trafficking organizations with less complex structure are not engaged in setting goals or articulating written statement of rules. In these organizations, objectives are generally communicated orally. The communication is usually direct as unites are not classified into levels. Unlike complex organizations, organizations with less complex structure are more flexible to adapt to changing environment. The recruitment and promotions in less complex organizations are usually merit based and significant importance is placed on skills and qualification of an individual6. Thus, it can be evidently, stated that globalization have significant impact on the management style and structure of the drug trafficking organizations. Compare and Contrast As described earlier, drug trafficking in 21st century is viewed as a major issue faced by countries across the world. In the recent time, illicit drug trade is widely recorded crimes executed in different form. To have a better comprehension with regard to the aforementioned facts, the prevalence of drug trafficking in US will be vital to discuss. Notably, the market for illicit drug in US is ascertained to be the major and the most profitable in the world. The drug trafficking organizations in this part of the world is deemed to be ruthless and sophisticated to an extent. The reports of the custom services suggest that in every year, more than 60 million people enter the nation out of which a large percentage is involved in the smuggling of drugs. Notably, the approach of drug trafficking organizations differs from region to region. For instance, the approach of drug trafficking organizations and their management in US is quite different in comparison to that of Mexico and Canada and other nations of the world7. Drug trafficking organizations in the US exist in large numbers especially including the gangs from Mexico that operates in alignment with the local gangs of the US. These organizations involves in the trafficking of illicit drugs worth of billions of dollars every year. Historically, gangs or anti-social organizations were generally involved in the activities of territorial expansion. However, in the recent time in the criminal organizations such as drug trafficking organizations are predominately driven by money objectives. Besides involving in illicit drug trafficking activities, drug trafficking organizations are also seen to engage in other forms of criminal activities such as money laundering and killing of people8. In the recent times, the activities of the drug trafficking organizations within the nations have grown rapidly. Millions of people immigrate to the US on a daily basis and conduct activities of drug trafficking. Notably, the operations of the drug trafficking organizations in the US are seen to be quite systematic in nature. Most of these criminal groups are involved with numerous activities of drug trafficking which include cultivating, manufacturing as well as delivering illicit drugs to the clients. The organizations use the air and water as well as land routes to smuggle illicit drugs to others parts of the nation. It has also been noted that the drug trafficking organizations in the US also use a vast infrastructure to conduct the drug trafficking activities on a larger scale. To get a better comprehension about the operational significance and the impact of drug trafficking organizations in context of the US, it would be vital to discuss the two most prominent organizations including Mexican drug trafficking organizations and Columbian drug trafficking organizations9. Notably, Mexican and Columbian drug traffickers has their extensive operational base in the US which further pose major challenges for the law enforcement department associated with drug trafficking. The Columbian drug traffickers operating in the US are mainly involved in the production and smuggling of cocaine and heroin outside the nation. Reports of the law enforcements departments revealed that maximum percent of the drug traffickers belonging from Columbia are basically involved in the smuggling of heroin in large quantities to markets of Florida and New York. Similar to that of the local organizations of the US, the Columbian drug traffickers also prefer air, water and road routes for smuggling illicit drugs to the Caribbean nations. However, in contrast to the local traffickers of the US, the Columbian traffickers focus on making large profits from smuggling illicit drug especially when they distribute the same outside the US. Hence, these aspects also have negative impact on the law enforcement domain in US10. Similar to that of the Columbian drug trafficking organizations, the operations of the Mexican drug trafficking organizations in the US is also a major problem for the law enforcement agencies in the nation. It has been analyzed that the Mexican drug trafficking organizations dominates a major part of both the retail and wholesale illicit drug markets. They are also deemed to be dominating the aspect of production and distribution of illicit drugs in the US and other neighboring nations. Some of the major Mexican drug trafficking organizations in US include Sinaloa Cartel, Los Zetas and Gulf Cartel among others. An overview of their operations in the US is provided in the table below (See fig 1). In contrast to the local drug trafficking organizations in the US, the Mexican organizations are also involved in violence and other criminal activities. These types of organizations have competitive advantage over that of the local organizations since there is little barrier for them to smuggle illicit drugs in the southwest border of US11. Fig 1: Activities of the Drug Trafiking Organizations Intended and Unintended Consequences of Criminal Justice Policies for Drug Trafficking in US In order to limit the operations of the drug trafficking organizations in the US, the government of the nation has emerged with several noteworthy policies. From the earlier analysis of the paper, it has been noted that drug trafficking organizations operating in US impose an obstinate threat to the socio-economic status the nation. The law enforcement departments in the nation have developed numerous policies towards dismantling the drug trafficking organizations and their operations. Contextually, High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Program (HIDTA) came into existence. As per this particular program, the law enforcement program, initiatives were undertaken to investigate and prosecute the activities of the drug trafficking organizations. The program also included certain initiatives relevant to intelligence and information to eradicate the activities of the organizations. In addition, the HIDTA program also included initiatives such as the prevention of the use of illicit drug in numerous regions of the nation. Furthermore, owing to the connection amid crime and drugs, law enforcement agencies are also concentrating towards reducing the criminal activities as a part of exterminating the activities of the drug trafficking organizations. In this context, as per the National Drug Control Strategy, concerned authorities emphasized on providing a wide array of evidence based practices to minimize crime rate12. The intended consequences of the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Program can be seen in various parts of the nation. Notably, post implementation of the program in Atlanta, law enforcement agencies have been able to dismantle and eradicate more than 57 small and big drug trafficking originations further fulfilling one of the major objectives of the program. However, the unintended consequences of the program in Atlanta came in the form of major monetary benefits for the government. Notably, the seizure of 57 organizations of drug trafficking organizations in Atlanta also resulted in seizing approximately around $40 million in assets. Similarly, the impact of the HIDTA program has also been noted in Central Florida. Notably, post implementation of the program in this particular region, 36 drug trafficking organizations were eradicated further assuring the accomplishment of intended goals of the program. Additionally, as unintended consequences, the legal authorities have been able to seize $30 million assets13. Several departments comprising “Departments of Justice, Defense, State and Treasury” among others are identified to work collaboratively towards curbing the issue of illicit drug trafficking. Owing to the drug control efforts of the nation through its policies, the government of the nation i.e. US has been able to seize marijuana in large quantity from the US Mexico borders. As a result of this approach of the government of US, the level of seizure of marijuana from the border has increased rapidly over the years, which is further regarded as an intended benefit of the approach. The result of the initiates can be apparently seen in the graph below (Fig 2). Fig 2: Marijuana Seizures along U.S.-Mexico Border However, there were also certain unintended outcomes of implementing the Criminal Justice Policies with regard to eliminate drug trafficking from the nation. One such consequence is the high level of spending of the government in in eradicating illicit drug trafficking which amounted to $1.5 billion in the fiscal year of 2000 as per the report of the U.S. Department of State14. Hence, it is quite apparent that the Criminal Justice Policies has both intended and unintended consequences for the nation. Conclusion From the overall analysis, it can be summarized that drug trafficking has become one of the major issues for the government of US in the recent times. The level of drug trafficking within the nation has increased rapidly over the years that have significantly affected the socio-economic status of the nation. The management style of drug trafficking organizations has changed immensely in the recent times owing to the globalization of crime, which has resulted in the globalized operations of their activities. Owing to globalization, these organizations are viewed to be adopting innovative and systematic management approach to attain their goals and objectives. Further analysis of the issue of drug trafficking also suggested that there exist certain key differences amid the management styles of drug trafficking organizations in US with that of other nations like Mexico and Columbia. The difference was mainly seen in scale of operation and approach towards meeting the objective of the organization. It has also been noted that the government of US has initiated several programs to cope up with the growing activities of drug trafficking within the nation. As a result, the law enforcement agencies in the US have been able to reduce the flow of illicit drug trade through seizing drug deals in Mexico-US border. The policies of the law enforcement agencies also resulted in eradication of drug trafficking organizations in several places of US. Nevertheless, law enforcement agencies in the US has been able to curb the issue of illicit drug trafficking to a certain extent, yet these agencies are required to deploy more rigid policies to completely curtail the operations of the drug trafficking organizations. References Benson, J. S., & Decker, S. H. (2010). The organizational structure of international drug smuggling. Journal of Criminal Justice, 38, 130-138. Executive Office of the President Office of National Drug Control Policy. (2011). High intensity drug trafficking areas program report to congress. Retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/ondcp/policy-and-research/hidta_2011.pdf Finckenauer, J. O., Fuentes, J. R., & Ward, G. L. (2007). Mexico and the United States: Neighbors Confront Drug Trafficking. NCJRS, 1-9. International Narcotics Control Board. (2001). Globalization and new technologies: challenges to drug law enforcement in the twenty-first century. Retrieved from http://www.incb.org/documents/Publications/AnnualReports/Thematic_chapters/English/AR_2001_E_Chapter_I.pdf Office of National Drug Control Policy. (n.d.). Law enforcement and criminal justice reform. Retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.gov/ondcp/law-enforcement-and-criminal-justice-reform Schmidt, M. (2012). U.S. gang alignment with Mexican drug trafficking organizations. 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