Drug Trafficking & Counter-Narcotics Policy

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

John Hudak

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

Related Books

The Extinction Market: Wildlife Trafficking and How to Counter It

By Vanda Felbab-Brown

2017

Shooting Up

By Vanda Felbab-Brown

2009

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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

VFelbabBrown

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Multimedia

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, October 2021. America has been hit hard by the opioid crisis. A record number, nearly 100.000 people died in 2020. One of the most dead;y drugs is Fentanyl, artificial heroin that is stronger and already available in consumer portions of five USD and that has completely replaced heroin that is hardly available on the streets. One of the epicenters of the drug pandemic is Kensington Avenue in North Philadelphia, between the subway stops Huntingdon and Allegheny on the elevated Market-Frankford subway / metro Line. A population of a few thousands addicts roam the streets, Several people a day die from overdosing. Aid workers try with opioid blocker Narcan to revive unconscious people. The Fentanyl is often diluted with tranquilizers such as Ketamin. (Photo by Teun Voeten/Sipa USA)No Use Germany.

Drug Trafficking & Counter-Narcotics Policy

China’s role in the US fentanyl crisis

Vanda Felbab-Brown and Bonnie S. Glaser

China Global

Tuesday, March 28, 2023

--FILE--A bottle of Fentanyl pharmaceuticals is displayed in Anyang city, central China's Henan province, 12 November 2018. 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.No Use China. No Use France.

Drug Trafficking & Counter-Narcotics Policy

Fentanyl: A triangle of sadness (US, Mexico, and China)

Vanda Felbab-Brown, Mariana Campero, and Guillermo Valdes

Mexico Matters

Monday, March 13, 2023

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

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More on Drug Trafficking & Counter-Narcotics Policy

FILE PHOTO: Plastic bags of Fentanyl are displayed on a table at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection area at the International Mail Facility at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, U.S. November 29, 2017. Picture taken November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Lott/File Photo

China’s role in the fentanyl crisis

Vanda Felbab-Brown

Friday, March 31, 2023

Members of Mexico's Federal Investigative Agency take part in an anti-narcotics operation in Gustavo A Madero district in Mexico City May 20, 2007. The operation is part of an ongoing campaign aimed at reducing Mexico City's crime problem. REUTERS/Daniel Aguilar (MEXICO)

The US-Mexico fentanyl meltdown – Part I: The state of noncooperation

Vanda Felbab-Brown

Sunday, March 19, 2023

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Vanda Felbab-Brown

Friday, September 2, 2022

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Drug Trafficking & Counter-Narcotics Policy

Why America is struggling to stop the fentanyl epidemic

Narco-economics: Inside the Mexican drug trade

The US-Mexico fentanyl meltdown – Part II: Mexico’s internal policies and US options

How is the opioid crisis affecting US-Mexico ties?

Reports

China-linked wildlife poaching and trafficking in Mexico

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

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

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

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

Blog Posts

Delaware shows the War on Drugs lives on in liberal enclaves

Something fishy: Wildlife trafficking from Mexico to China

China and synthetic drugs: Geopolitics trumps counternarcotics cooperation

Events

China’s role in poaching and wildlife trafficking in Mexico

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

The future of the Coast Guard

Related Books

The Extinction Market: Wildlife Trafficking and How to Counter It

Shooting Up

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

Multimedia

China’s role in the US fentanyl crisis

Fentanyl: A triangle of sadness (US, Mexico, and China)

Heroin’s journey during COVID

More on Drug Trafficking & Counter-Narcotics Policy

China’s role in the fentanyl crisis

The US-Mexico fentanyl meltdown – Part I: The state of noncooperation

Violence against and corruption in law enforcement: Recent US cases

Why is Mexico’s security strategy failing?

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

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