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Organized Crime in the Levant Download POLITICAL ECONOMY REPORT ORGANIZED CRIME IN THE LEVANT Conflict, transactional relationships and identity dynamics LAURA ADAL FEBRUARY 2021 ORGANIZED CRIME IN THE LEVANT Conflict, transactional relationships and identity dynamics ww Laura Adal February 2021 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This report was prepared, researched and written by Laura Adal, under the guidance of Tuesday Reitano, Deputy Director of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC). Phone Interviews were carried out by Ahmad Sakkal and related general research by Muhammad Abunnassr, Balquees Al-Bsharat, Hadeel Azeez Dhahir, Nazli Tarzi, Salem Osseiran, and Hakan Demirbuken. Editing was done by Mark Ronan and diagrams were created by Claudio Landi. The layout was prepared by Pete Bosman and maps devel- oped by Liezel Bohdanowicz. The research for this report was made possible with funding from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). ABOUT THE AUTHOR Laura Adal is a senior analyst at the GI-TOC, where she provides research for a number of projects, analyzing a diverse range of organized-crime flows across the world. Laura is part of the core team in the development of the Organised Crime Index, which evaluates the relationship between criminality and country responses. She is a trained lawyer and previously worked at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Terrorism Prevention Branch, where she engaged in research related to terrorism and violent extremism, and provided legal counter-terrorism technical assistance to member states. © 2021 Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the Global Initiative. Cover: © Delil Souleiman/AFP via Getty Images Cartography: Liezel Bohdanowicz Please direct inquiries to: The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime Avenue de France 23 Geneva, CH-1202 Switzerland www.globalinitiative.net CONTENTS Acronyms and abbreviations ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� iv Executive summary �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 1 Internal and external dynamics �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 2 Mapping of criminal markets in the Levant ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 4 Drug trafficking ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 6 Arms trafficking ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 10 Human smuggling ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 14 Drivers and dynamics of illicit flows in the Levant ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 22 Local dynamics ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 25 External dynamics ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 26 Country contexts and their impact on the Levant ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 28 Syria’s transactional role in regional political-economic dynamics ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 29 Lebanon: Syria’s civil war spills over ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 32 Jordan: A neutral regional platform? ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 38 Iraq: The remnants of extremism �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 42 Programme mapping ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 48 Conclusions and recommendations ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 52 Annex ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 58 Notes ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 64 ACRONYMS AND GLOSSARY GDP gross domestic product ISIS Islamic State in Iraq and Syria MENA Middle East and North Africa ODA official development assistance PKK Kurdistan Workers’ Party PMF Popular Mobilization Forces (Iraq) PYD Democratic Union Party UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees YPG People’s Protection Units (Syria) iv Syrian refugees wait to cross into Jordan. Effects of the Syrian conflict have spilled over into neighbouring states, contributing to extended organized criminal flows. © Khalil Mazraawi/AFP via Getty Images v EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The coronavirus pandemic has placed additional burdens on infrastructure systems in the Levant. Here a worker sprays disinfectant in Jordan’s archaeological city of Petra. © Khalil Mazraawi/AFP via Getty Images he Middle East, a region with a long history and culture, has made important contributions to society as the cradle of civilization. Unfortunately, in con- Ttemporary times, the region has been marred by instability, power plays and conflict, most recently against the backdrop of the global coronavirus pandemic. This volatility not only undermines the roles of the region’s institutions, national econo- mies and the day-to-day lives of its populations, but has also had a significant impact on organized crime and illicit flows. Throughout the 20th century, the Levant region (and in particular Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Iraq, which are the focus of this report), has experienced a series of defining shifts, from the creation of states and changes in governing powers, to the discovery of crucial natural resources, military coups and the rise of religious extremism. Most recently, the Arab Spring of 2010 became a crucial turning point for the Levant and the wider Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, when a series of anti-government protests and uprisings took place in response to oppres- sive regimes, low standards of living, and high unemployment rates for a largely young population. Although organized crime has always been a feature in the region, illicit activities and flows have begun to rise in the context of this recent tumultuous backdrop – a growth facilitated by public disorder, deterioration in the capacity of state law- enforcement agencies and economic hardship. In the Levant, the effects of the Arab Spring a decade ago have triggered a protracted and brutal conflict in Syria, which has not only made violence and instability the norm in the country, but also affected its neighbours’ political stability, social cohesion, and licit and illicit econ- omies. Additionally, like much of the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has placed further strain on the Levant’s already weakened health, economic and social struc- tures, fuelling uncertainty about citizens’ welfare and the region’s ability to recover. COVID-19 has also renewed opportunities for illicit activities to thrive and become a permanent and pervasive fixture in the region – even after the conflict ends and a vaccine is found. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1 Since the Syrian conflict began in 2011, analysis of into a state of affairs where scarcities in basic food- the Levant region has been seen primarily through stuffs, materials and people have developed. Newer the lenses of national politics, identity and ideology. illicit economies have emerged to meet these short- Nevertheless, there has been a growing aware- ages (in addition to the formalization of existing ness of the destabilizing impact of transnational ones, like the illicit weapons and drugs markets), and and cross-border criminal economies, such as the with them, new actors (both foreign and local) have regional mass movement of drugs, weapons, people come into play. These dynamics have only been re- and armed groups – particularly within the context inforced by the COVID-19 pandemic. of COVID-19, which has highlighted the intercon- In Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq, illicit flows across nectedness of states and the consequences of both shared borders with Syria have exacerbated pre- licit and illicit cross-border flows. existing and somewhat latent political, economic The
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