The globalization of narcoterrorism in the post 9/11

• Author: Petrica-Mihail Marcoci - Diana-Camelia Boroi
• Position: Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Police Academy 'Alexandru Ioan Cuza'- Romania, The Department of Crimes investigation - M.Sc. Student
• Pages: 118-121

THE GLOBALIZATION OF NARCOTERRORISM IN THE POST 9/11

Petric-Mihail Marcoci

Diana-Camelia Boroi

Abstract

Narcoterr orism is the activity of terr orist groups who use na rcotics tra de as an alter native to finance

their activities. To perform daily a ctivities, terr orist organizations need money for weapons, computers, tr aining,

transpor t, etc. Drug tr ade is a very profitable a nd difficult to identify source of money. Narcotics such a s opium,

heroin or cocaine a re produced easily and chea ply. However, because they a re illegal, and as a result in small

quantities, these gr oups can obtain high profits from them that they can further use to commit attacks.

Keywords: dr ug trafficking, terr orist orga nizations, the Revolutiona ry Armed F orces of Columbia, Al

Qaeda , Afganistan, Hezbollah, failed states.

Introduction

The events of 9/11/2001 h ave completely cha nged the a pproaches, strategies a nd policies, both at

global, r egional and local levels. What formerly seemed impossible, a ttacking the U.S. on its own ter ritory by a

terror ist entity, had occured! The politica l, ec onomic and global militar y actor was facing a first, previous

potential a ttacks having occurr ed during the second world war when, as was la ter seen after accessing military

archives, the German submar ines had a pproached New York so much that they ha d filmed the night lights of "

the Big Apple".

The fall of communism, globalization and the r educing possibility of political systems to fund ter rorist

organ izations, have forced the latter to become cor poratized, to identify by themselves financing and busines s

opportunities, deepening their insidious and secret natur e.

International pressure on Islamic terrorists and extremist-terrorist groups in general and on the countries

that finance terror ism in particular, increased steadily after the Al Qaeda terrorist attacks of 11 Septe mber 2001

on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Governments have taken measures to ban and control financial

operations of terrorist organizations or NGOs used as a front for them.

Consequently, in this context, terrorist groups have had to shift to different regional or local markets in

search of opportunities for "business" which allows operational efficienc y, but in this cas e they had to frequently

connect with local organized cr ime, incorporating a highly complex criminal mosaic, dangerous for both the

national security of states and the global political balance and stability.

Conceptually narco terrorism means "ter rorist acts carried out by groups that are directly or indirectly

involved in the cultivation, production, transmission and distribution of illicit drugs"

1. In this paradigm,

narcoterrorism includes both ter rorist actions that organizations involved in drug trafficking commit and,

indirectly, the involvement in drug trafficking operations of terrorist organizations.

The U.S. and other Western countries, victi ms of drug trafficking, have become targets of terrorist

organizations intere sted in selling dr ugs and subsequently in creating sophisticated and hidden mechanisms of

laundering money used to give logistical support or to commit attacks.

In a functionalist approach, we must admit that narcoterrorism is etiologically rooted in the economic

globalization and in facilitating access to global financial systems for organizations that are virtual screens t hat

conceal the final destination of funds. Likewise, offshore jurisdictions, with their extremely fragile systems of

controlling financial and business operations have been a car ousel of money laundering used b y terrorist

organizations.

The danger of narcoterrorism has a dual nature: on the one hand, because it involves creating networks

that produce and sell substa nces that are dangerous to public health in different countries, and on the other hand,

because large amounts of money coming from these activities fund supre me forms of public safety threats.

The post 9/11 experience in narcoterrorism is related to the failure of primary approac h and anal ysis of

the phenomenon, to the imposibility of decrypting early warning signals that terrorist organizations have given

involuntarily, to the flawed policy orientation in the area of intelligence and last, but not least, to the belated

understanding of the co ncept of "failed states" and the danger which they induce in the international security

environment.

 Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Police Academy “Alexandru Ioan Cuza”- Romania, The Department of Crimes investigation, e-mail:

ijjs@univagora.ro.

*M.Sc. Student, ijjs@univagora.ro

1 According to a definiton of DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration).- www.justice.gov/dea.