India’s proximity to the two of the world’s biggest illicit opium growing states has enhanced her internal security concerns. Explain the linkages between drug trafficking and other illicit activities such as gunrunning, money laundering and human trafficking. What counter measures should be taken to prevent the same?. (UPSC IAS Mains 2018 General Studies Paper – 3)
Geographically, India is placed between the two largest opium growing areas in the world. To the west is the Golden Crescent (Afghanistan) and to the east is the Golden Triangle (Myanmar). This makes India vulnerable to drug trafficking through its borders and other illicit activities, and has enhanced her internal security concerns. There exist linkages between drug trafficking and other illicit activities such as gunrunning, money laundering and human trafficking, which are as follows:
- An increasing interoperability has been witnessed between drug cartels and other criminal groups. In Afghanistan around 85% of the opium growing area falls under Taliban. Taliban uses the funds from drug trade in many different ways like weapons smuggling, human trafficking, and proliferation of terrorism etc.
- Drug trafficking groups also get attracted to human trafficking activities as there is some overlap between the routes used and there are advantages to be gained by sharing established logistical infrastructure, which includes transportation and storage facilities.
- Similarly, gunrunning and money laundering require logistics supports which are shared by these organizations. At times these activities seem to sustain each other such as smuggling drugs by hiding it in human body parts. The revenue generated from drug trade is laundered to create assets such as casinos, bars, hotels etc. which again became breeding grounds for other crimes. Nexus between drug lords and armed groups gives rise to thriving weapons business.
Following counter-measures can be opted against these crimes:
- As these crimes are trans-national in character, countering them requires cooperation among all countries.
- Making the border management more robust and plugging the gaps by bringing in force the recommendations of Madhukar Gupta Committee on border protection. The committee has given broad recommendations on the issues of Threats and Border Protection, assessment of force level, deployment on the border, infrastructure and technology issues for protection of border and administrative issues
- Making the police and the concerned authorities acquainted to dark web and other modes of operation.
- Sensitizing the public against negative fallouts of drugs and starting rehabilitation programmes.
This drug problem is a serious menace giving impetus to various other crimes, so strong political will and hard measures if required should be opted to tackle this challenge. Technical solutions are also necessary to augment and complement the traditional methods of border guarding. Working on both the front can probably address the existing problems of internal security.
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