DRUG SMUGGLING The illegal drug trade is a global black market, competing with legal drug trade, dedicated to cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of those substances which are subject to drug prohibition laws. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs by drug prohibition laws. A UN report said the global drug trade generated an estimated US$321.6 billion in 2003. With a world GDP of US$36 trillion in the same year, the illegal drug trade may be estimated as slightly less than 1% of total global commerce. Consumption of illegal drugs is widespread globally. History The illegal drug trade has arisen as a result of drug prohibition laws. In the First Opium War the Chinese authorities had banned opium but the United Kingdom forced the country to allow British merchants to trade in opium with the general population. Smoking opium had become common in the 19th century due to increasing importation via British merchants. Trading in opium was (as it is today in the heroin trade) extremely lucrative. As a result of this illegal trade an estimated two million Chinese people became addicted to the drug. The British Crown (via the treaties of Nanking and Tianjin) took vast sums of money from the Chinese government through this illegal trade which they referred to as "reparations". Mafia groups limited their activities to gambling and theft until 1920, when organized bootlegging manifested in response to the effect of prohibition. An example of the spectacular rise of the mafia due to Prohibition is Al Capone's syndicate that "ruled" Chicago in the 1920s. The official rise of drug trade started in 1954. The peak of drug selling was in 1979. In jurisdictions where legislation restricts or prohibits the sale of certain popular drugs, it is common for an illegal drug trade to develop. For example, the United States Congress has identified a number of controlled substances with corresponding drug trades. Legal drugs like tobacco can also be the subject of smuggling and illegal trading if the price difference between the origin and the destination are high enough to make it profitable. With taxes on tobacco much higher in the United Kingdom than on mainland Europe this is a considerable problem in the UK. Also, it is illegal to sell/give tobacco or alcohol to minors, which is considered smuggling throughout most first-world countries. Most nations consider drug trafficking a very serious problem. In 1989, the United States intervened in Panama with the goal of disrupting the drug trade. The Indian government has several covert operations in the Middle East and Indian subcontinent to keep a track of various drug dealers. Some estimates placed the value of the global trade in illegal drugs at around US$400 billion in the year 2000; that, added to the global trade value of legal drugs at the same time, totals to an amount higher than the amount of money spent for food in the same period of time. In the 2005 United Nations World Drug Report, the value of the global illicit drug market for the year 2003 was estimated at US$13 billion at the production level, at US$94 billion at the wholesale level, and at US$322 billion based on retail prices and taking seizures and other losses into account. Major consumer countries include the United States and European nations, although consumption is world-wide. Major producer countries include Afghanistan (opium), Bolivia (primarily cocaine), and Colombia (primarily cocaine). Sometimes the goods are hidden in the bag or vehicle of an innocent person, who does not know about this, and the goods are retrieved after crossing the border. Other methods of smuggling include hiding the goods in a vehicle, luggage or clothes, strapping them to one's body, or using the body as container. The latter is mainly applied for heroin and cocaine, and sometimes for ecstasy. It is often done by swallowing latex balloons (such as condoms, or fingers of latex gloves) or special pellets filled with the goods, and recovering them from the feces later (such a smuggler is called a ³balloon swallower´ or ³internal carrier´; the practice is also called ³body packing´ or ³body stuffing´). It is a common but medically dangerous way of smuggling small amounts of drugs: such a "mule" may well die when a packet bursts or leaks. With regard to traffic from South America to the U.S., the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration reports: "Unlike cocaine, heroin is often smuggled by people who swallow large numbers of small capsules (50- 90), allowing them to transport up to 1.5 kilograms of heroin per courier. However, elsewhere cocaine is also smuggled this way. Efforts to prevent drug trafficking include the use of X-rays at airports and border control points to check for drug pellets. In 2003, statistics confirmed that over 50 percent of foreign females in UK jails were drug mules from Jamaica. Nigerian women also make a large contribution to the remaining figure. In all, around 18 percent of the UK's female jail population is foreigners, and sixty percent of them are serving sentences for drug related offenses²most of them drug mules. Smuggling tunnel Smuggling tunnels are secret tunnels, usually hidden underground, used for smuggling of goods and people. The practise began in 17th century Cornwall, England and has continued all over the world. The term is also used where the tunnels are legitimate responses to aggression or siege e.g. during the siege of Sarajevo. Smuggling tunnel in Sarajevo, Bosnia During the Siege of Sarajevo a tunnel underneath the no-man's land of the city's (closed) airport provided a vital smuggling link for the beleaguered city residents. Guns were smuggled into the city and (at what critics said were exploitively high rates) people were smuggled out. It features in the British film "Welcome to Sarajevo" and a similar tunnel in an unknown city, but likely Belgrade features in the dark Serbian satire of conflict "Underground". Smuggling tunnels in Rafah, Gaza Strip Gaza Strip smuggling tunnels connect Egypt and the Gaza Strip, bypassing the Egypt- Gaza Strip barrier built by Israel along the international border established by the Israel- Egypt Peace Treaty. The tunnels pass under the Philadelphi corridor an area specified in the Oslo accords as being under Israeli military control, in order to secure the border with Egypt. U.S.-Canadian drug smuggling tunnel In early 2005, a group of Canadian drug-smugglers took up the idea, and constructed a tunnel between a greenhouse in Langley, British Columbia and the basement of a house in Lynden, Washington, which lay across the ditch marking the United States-Canada border (the house on the Langley side was on 0 Avenue ("Zero Avenue"), which runs parallel to the border and is the baseline of Langley's avenue-numbering system). They bought the two properties and began construction work. Authorities were alerted when a neighbor noticed the large-scale construction work being undertaken in the greenhouse. On inspection, it was apparent that tons of construction material was entering, and piles of dirt were coming out. It became known within a short time by both American and Canadian border authorities that a tunnel was being built. Video and audio devices were installed secretly by customs officials both at the termini and in the tunnel itself. On July 14, the tunnel having been completed, the first packs of marijuana began going through. Officials raided the home soon after and arrested the three men. They then appeared before court in Seattle. U.S.-Mexican smuggling tunnels On January 25, 2006, the largest smuggling tunnel to date was found on the US-Mexico border by a joint U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and U.S. Border Patrol task force. The 2400-foot-long (720m) tunnel runs from a warehouse near the Tijuana airport to a warehouse in San Diego. When discovered, it was devoid of people, but it did contain 2 tons of marijuana. It was 5 feet high and up to 90 feet deep. The floor was made of cement and the walls were exposed clay, with lights lining one side, a ventilation system to keep fresh air circulating, and a water drainage system to remove infiltrating ground water. Authorities said it was unclear how long the tunnel had been in operation. On January 30, U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents arrested a Mexican Citizen, who was linked to the tunnel via the U.S. warehouse, operated by V&F Distributors LLC. On the Friday before, January 27, immigration authorities reportedly received information that the Mexican cartel behind the operation was threatening the lives of any agents involved with the construction or occupation of the tunnel. US Customs and Immigration, however, pledged to protect them as best they can. Authorities believe Tijuana's Arellano-Felix drug syndicate, or some other well-known drug cartel, was behind the building and operation of the tunnel. On November 26, 2010, a 2,600 foot (800m) tunnel was discovered linking Tijuana to Otay Mesa, California. Drug Smuggling In Pakistan he Pakistani Taliban gets its funding from a variety of sources: µtaxes¶ on the timber and gems trade, extorting small businessmen, kidnapping, and bank robberies. But drugs are undoubtedly a major component of finances. Gretchen Peters, a journalist formerly with ABC News, has written an excellent book on what¶s generally described as the Afghan drug trade. But, as she demonstrates quite effectively, defining the industry as Afghan is inaccurate²it is a regional phenomenon. Drug profiteers have achieved a level of integration between actors across multiple Central and Southwest Asian states that regional economic pacts have failed to.