Drug Trafficking & Counter-Narcotics Policy

A Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agent watches over more than 26,000 pounds of cocaine and 3,700 pounds of marijuana, according to the U.S. Coast Guard, seized from multiple interdictions before they are unloaded from the Coast Guard Cutter Hamilton at Port Everglades, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S. November 22, 2021. REUTERS/Marco Bello

Drug Trafficking & Counter-Narcotics Policy

Violence against and corruption in law enforcement: Recent US cases

Vanda Felbab-Brown

Saturday, November 26, 2022

September 26, 2022, Mexico City, Mexico: Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador during the daily morning press conference at the National Palace in Mexico City. on September 26, 2022 in Mexico City, Mexico. (Photo by Luis Barron/Eyepix Group/Sipa USA).No Use Germany.

Mexico

Why is Mexico’s security strategy failing?

Vanda Felbab-Brown and Nathaniel Parish Flannery

Tuesday, September 27, 2022

A customs officer presents part of what has become the largest single seizure of cocaine in Bavaria to date. Representatives of the Joint Narcotics Investigation Group (JIT) Northern Bavaria, the Customs Investigation Office in Munich, the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office and the Public Prosecutor's Office in Aschaffenburg were involved in the operation.

Drug Trafficking & Counter-Narcotics Policy

The foreign policies of the Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG – Part V: Europe’s supercoke and on-the-horizon issues and the Middle East

Vanda Felbab-Brown

Friday, September 16, 2022

Buenos Aires, Argentina.- In the photos taken on April 20, 2022, authorities give information to the press about the operation where a shipment of cocaine was intercepted. An organization that tried to traffic 71 kilos of cocaine hidden among export merchandise from Argentina to the Spanish city of Barcelona was disrupted during the last hours in a joint operation between the Federal Police (PFA) and the Spanish Civil Guard, according to police sources.

Drug Trafficking & Counter-Narcotics Policy

The foreign policies of the Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG — Part IV: Europe’s cocaine and meth markets

Vanda Felbab-Brown

Friday, September 2, 2022

Reports

Coast guards carry two specimens of smuggled hawksbill sea turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) in Fangchenggang city, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China, 28 June 2017.Guards seized 11 bags of crocodile skins and two specimens of hawksbill sea turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) in Fangchenggang city, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China, 28 June 2017. Crocodile skin is the upmarket of consumer goods because of its small quantities and luxurious quality. The smuggling of alligator skins is emerging as the high-end leather market flourishes.No Use China. No Use France.

China

China-linked wildlife poaching and trafficking in Mexico

Vanda Felbab-Brown

March 2022

A chemical specialist in a protective suit shows pills seized at a clandestine drug processing laboratory of fentanyl located in the Azcapotzalco municipality, in Mexico City, Mexico, in this handout photograph released to Reuters by PGR - Attorney General's Office, December 12, 2018. PGR - Attorney General's Office/Handout via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY

China

China and synthetic drugs control: Fentanyl, methamphetamines, and precursors

Vanda Felbab-Brown

March 2022

Colombia's FARC lead negotiator Ivan Marquez (L) and Colombia's lead government negotiator Humberto de la Calle (R) shake hands while Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez looks on, after signing a final peace deal in Havana, Cuba, August 24, 2016. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Crime & Criminal Justice

Negotiating with violent criminal groups: Lessons and guidelines from global practice

Mark Freeman and Vanda Felbab-Brown

April 2021

Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang members wait to be escorted upon their arrival at the maximum-security jail in Zacatecoluca, El Salvador, June 22, 2017. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas

Crime & Criminal Justice

Bargaining with the devil to avoid hell? Negotiations with criminal groups in Latin America and the Caribbean

Vanda Felbab-Brown

July 2020

Poppy field

Report

Fending off fentanyl and hunting down heroin: Controlling opioid supply from Mexico

Vanda Felbab-Brown

Wednesday, July 22, 2020

Blog Posts

A plant of the industrial hemp variety Futura 75 stands in the Hemp Museum in Berlin. The traffic light parties want to legalize cannabis for consumption. Soon, hemp could be sold freely in licensed shops.

FixGov

Delaware shows the War on Drugs lives on in liberal enclaves

Tuesday, May 24, 2022

Smuggled Mexican box turtles were wrapped in duct tape, stuffed into socks and hidden in four coffee cans. Credit: USFWS

Order from Chaos

Something fishy: Wildlife trafficking from Mexico to China

Vanda Felbab-Brown

Tuesday, March 8, 2022

China will add fentanyl-related substances to a supplementary list of controlled narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances with non-medical use since May 1. The decision was announced Monday in a joint statement by the Ministry of Public Security, the National Health Commission and the National Medical Products Administration. Fentanyl and its analogues that were previously included in the list of controlled narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, as well as the related substances in the supplementary list, will remain to be controlled according to relevant regulations, the statement said. Chang zhongzheng, Oriental Image via Reuters Connect.

Order from Chaos

China and synthetic drugs: Geopolitics trumps counternarcotics cooperation

Vanda Felbab-Brown

Monday, March 7, 2022

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Events

China’s role in poaching and wildlife trafficking in Mexico

10:00 AM - 11:30 AM EDT

China’s role in the smuggling of synthetic drugs and precursors

10:00 AM - 11:30 AM EDT

The future of the Coast Guard

2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EDT

View All Events

Related Books

"The Extinction Market" by Vanda Felbab-Brown

The Extinction Market: Wildlife Trafficking and How to Counter It

By Vanda Felbab-Brown

2017

Shooting Up

By Vanda Felbab-Brown

2009

Experts

Vanda Felbab-Brown

Director - Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors

Co-Director - Africa Security Initiative

Senior Fellow - Foreign Policy, Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology

View All Experts

Multimedia

Sap oozes from poppies after they are scratched, a process to get opium from poppies, in a village outside Balkh province, about 500 km (310 miles) north of Kabul May 6, 2006. The illegal narcotics trade dominates Afghanistan's economy, accounting for 60 percent of its gross domestic product and 87 percent of the world's supply. Heroin and morphine are derived from opium, which comes from poppies. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

Drug Trafficking & Counter-Narcotics Policy

Heroin’s journey during COVID

Vanda Felbab-Brown, Jack Meegan-Vickers, Tariq M. Khosa, Ben Crabtree, Jason Eligh, and Simone Haysom

The Impact

Friday, May 22, 2020

View All Multimedia

More on Drug Trafficking & Counter-Narcotics Policy

Members of the Mexican army stand guard at the crime scene where unknown assailants left the bodies of dead people on the outskirts of the city, according to local media, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico August 13, 2022. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez

The power of Mexican cartels: In Mexico and abroad

Vanda Felbab-Brown

Thursday, August 25, 2022

A Spanish policeman watches a vessel arrive in the port of Santa Cruzde Tenerife in the Canary Islands August 30, 2001 during aninternational police operation involving Spain, the U.S. and Canada.Fourteen people were arrested and two boats seized off the coast ofFrench Guiana carrying about five tonnes of cocaine. Spain is a majorEuropean entry point for drugs and contraband coming from North Africaand Latin America. REUTERS/Alex RosaDB

The foreign policies of the Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG – Part III: Africa

Vanda Felbab-Brown

Sunday, August 21, 2022

A customs officer stands beside a total of 649 kg (1,430 pounds) of cocaine during a news conference held by the Customs and Excise Department in Hong Kong July 6, 2012. Customs officers seized a record amount of cocaine with a street value of HK$760 million ($98 million), a government radio reported on Friday. The drugs were found in a container coming from Ecuador at the Kwai Chung Container Terminals and three men have been arrested so far. REUTERS/Bobby Yip (CHINA - Tags: CRIME LAW DRUGS SOCIETY)

The foreign policies of the Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG – Part II: The Asia-Pacific

Vanda Felbab-Brown

Friday, August 5, 2022

Soldiers patrol at a poppy plantation used to make heroin during an operation of destruction at Sierra de Culiacan in state of Sinaloa, December 8, 2011. High above Mexico's drug-producing heartland, Mexican soldiers are combing the fertile fields of the northwestern state of Sinaloa in search of the billion-dollar poppy and marijuana farms that litter the region. In the operative the Mexican troops destroyed packed marijuana as well as bundles of the plant for processing, accounting for over 100 tonnes, according Army Commander General, Moises Melo. Picture taken December 8, 2011. REUTERS/Bernardo Montoya (MEXICO - Tags: DRUGS SOCIETY MILITARY)

The foreign policies of the Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG – Part I: In the Americas

Vanda Felbab-Brown

Friday, July 22, 2022

A bullet-riddled facade with the acronym of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) is pictured in El Aguaje after the visit of Vatican's ambassador to Mexico Franco Coppola to the area and to the municipality of Aguililla, an area where the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and local drug gangs are fighting to control the territory, in Michoacan state, Mexico April 23, 2021. REUTERS/Alan Ortega

How Mexico’s Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación rules

Vanda Felbab-Brown

Sunday, May 29, 2022

A customs officer displays Captagon pills, part of the 789 kilograms (1739 pounds) of confiscated drugs, before its incineration in Sofia, 12, 2007. The drugs are worth around 68 million Levs (48 million dollars). REUTERS/Nikolay Doychinov (BULGARIA)

The battle against captagon

Vanda Felbab-Brown

Friday, May 27, 2022