Albanese Drug Trafficking Book Review

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Albanese begins the chapter by giving us a brief introduction with how drug trafficking has become predictable with the process of how the reports are made. First, the police announce how it’s one of the “largest seizures of narcotics history”, then multiple suspects are arrested, and finally large amount of cash are seized. Once this happens, announcements are made about the operation, the narcotics detained are inevitably destroyed, the money obtained is taken by the government, and the offenders are finally imprisoned. To explain this further, Albanese discussed the case of Haji Juna Khan, who was arrested and indicted in New York. He was arrested for leading an organization involved with drug trafficking based in Afghanistan. For example, …show more content…

By explaining the nature of transnational drug trafficking further, he elaborated on the three major rug control conventions that seek to regulate drug distribution. The three convention were the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs in 1961, the Convention on Psychotropic Substances in 1971, and finally the UN Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances in 1988. Albanese pointed out that these three conventions are important because they are binding on the nations that ratify them. Next, he examined the volumes of drug trafficking. The four major groups of illicit drugs are cannabis, cocaine, opiates, and amphetamines. Albanese used two figures to illustrate the productions of two of these drugs: Opium and Cocaine. The first figure 2.1, looked at opium production from 1994 to 2008 and the three countries that dominate opium production which are Afghanistan, Myanmar, and Laos. To obtain the data several member countries were required to provide drug related information under the international drug conventions. Figure 2.2, looked at cocaine production in the three largest coca cultivating countries: Columbia, Peru, and Bolivia. Finally, Albanese took a look at the United Nations Office of drugs and Crime and found it is estimated that between 200,000 to 642,000 …show more content…

Albanese believes that a more systematic approach to drug trafficking makes it easier to understand how it thrives and also why single tactic approach has not been successful. He also found that illegal enterprises strive to accomplish two goals, which is to survive and make profit. He uses a diagram to represent a model of criminal enterprise taking a look at regulators, customers, competition, and the supply. Finally, one approach to explain the choices of crime groups focuses on “routine activities” or “situational crime prevention” while concentrating on criminal

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