Narcotrafficking

International transfer and sale of illegal narcotics. Narcotrafficking is a feature of the so-called war on narcotics or war on drugs. In regard to the United States, narcotrafficking refers to the production of drugs such as cocaine, heroin, marijuana, hashish, or other controlled substances in a foreign country and their subsequent illicit importation to this country. Although the term narcotic defines only opium or opium derivatives, the term is generally applied to all illegal drugs.

The negative impact of opium brought into the United States by foreign nationals was first formally recognized by the passage of the first drug law in the United States—in San Francisco at the end of the 19th century. Aimed at the Chinese immigrant population, the law prohibited the smoking of opium. Throughout the 20th century, the United States passed a series of laws banning the production, sale, and possession of a variety of drugs, including alcohol during the 1920s. The ineffectiveness and unpopularity of Prohibition led to its repeal in the 1930s, but other drugs have remained illegal.

During the administration of President Richard Nixon, a public antidrug campaign was launched called the War on Drugs. The program was the product of a number of factors, including research linking different kinds of drugs with rising crime rates, the growing social acceptance of drugs such as marijuana among young people, and reports about the use of more serious drugs, such as heroin, by U.S. troops in Vietnam. The increased government focus on drugs led to prescriptions for interdiction at the level of importation and production. South America and the country of Colombia in particular became the focus of these efforts.

The trafficking of illegal drugs into the United States changed dramatically in method and scale during the 1970s. As demand for cocaine grew, drug cartels developed, which functioned as organized crime networks handling every stage of the process. Drugs were produced in jungle laboratories and then transported in large shipments north to the United States. The method of transporting these drugs across the border and into the major cities changed from being dependent upon individual smugglers to involving the use of private aircraft. The volume thus transformed as well, from the amount that one smuggler could carry, to the amount that could be transported by a small plane.

As profits grew, so did competition. The Medellín drug cartel in Colombia dominated the cocaine trade until the 1980s, when the group was supplanted by the Cali cartel. The Cali cartel worked in conjunction with the Colombian government and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to destroy the Medellín cartel. As a result, the Cali cartel grew more successful. Although the Cali cartel itself was finally liquidated in the 1990s, its leaders are said to be operating the cartel from behind bars.

Since becoming the focus of the international antidrug effort by the United States, Colombia has ceded its central role in production to Mexico, so the primary point of entry into the United States has shifted from Florida to California.

Meanwhile, the focus on the production and illegal importation of drugs into the United States has shifted to a focus on the role of the illegal drug trade in terrorism. The terms narcoterrorism and narcoterrorist have emerged to describe the use of profits from the sale of illicit substances to fund terrorist activities. By associating drug use with support for terrorism, the new strategy focuses on cutting the demand for drugs in the United States.

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