Maritime drug trafficking in Latin America

The first data on maritime drug trafficking from Latin America to the main drug consumption market in the Americas: United States of America is from the 1960s when the Coast Guard of that country registered an exponential increase in seizures of marijuana. It was introduced by sea on the Caribbean routes where fishing boats and speedboats made their entry into the continental United States. Beginning in 1990 with the end of the Colombian Cartel boom and the replacement of Mexican cartels, there is an increase in shipments to the Central American coasts and the Mexican coastlines == Main routes ==

The routes for the traffic of drugs to the United States and Western Europe, the main markets for drugs produced in Latin America are three: the Pacific route, the Caribbean route, and the Atlantic route. Drug trafficking organizations continue making stops in different countries of Central America or to replenish or to transport it by land the product to the US-Mexico border in its direct routes to the United States. In their routes to Europe they sail to the Caribbean where they transship the narcotics to commercial boats or vessels with greater reach which have direct routes to the main ports of entry in Europe like ones in Netherlands and Belgium in the North and Spain and Portugal in the South. Also, there have been reports of drugs seizures in the ports of United Kingdom and Ireland. The Caribbean route The Caribbean route, in spite of being used previously as a point of incursion to introduce drugs to the United States due to its proximity to the State of Florida, currently serves as a traffic point where approximately 40% of the cocaine destined for the European market stops to be transshipped to other boats that leave for the West African or directly to the European ports having as main entrances the ports of England, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. The Pacific route In this route, the main ports of exit for drug trafficking are Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador, The essence of this route is that trafficking organizations can also use it to disembark in the Central American countries to transfer it to land routes or other vessels with higher transport capacity. The Atlantic route (CIA) This route, primarily used by drug traffickers, is based on the departure of cargoes from the countries of the southern cone of the American continent with routes that are primarily destined for Africa, which is generally fed by vessels leaving Brazil due to its proximity to this continent. As well as there have been registered vessels departing of ports in Argentina and Uruguay where the destination is Europe. == Vessels and transportation methods ==

The networks that organized crime organizations have created are complex because they are continually evolving along with the actions implemented by the authorities to detect drug shipments. However, these criminal organizations tend to improve their processes and creatively find more subtle and ingenious ways to hide drug shipments within the different vessels they use to move hundreds of tons per year through the seas of Latin America. == Responses ==

Maritime drug trafficking has had a great impact within Latin American countries, drug smuggling has not been properly sized. Therefore, the countries involved have resorted to different mechanisms of international cooperation to reduce traffic in the marine regions of Latin America where intelligence operations and shared information systems have been the main tools for the mitigation of this activity. So the responses by the forces have varied extensively throughout the fight against drugs which highlights the coordinated operations between the countries involved such operations like Operation Martillo, Operation Lionfish III, and Operation Panama Express. The legal gears with which countries currently operate to conduct naval operations in order to combat the traffic of drugs are found in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in the articles 27 and 108 while the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances in Article 17 establishes the limitations in the prosecution of vessels that are related to drug trafficking. Article 27 subsection (d) of United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea: The criminal jurisdiction of the coastal State should not be exercised on board a foreign ship passing through the territorial sea to arrest any person or to conduct any investigation in connection with any crime committed on board the ship during its passage, save only in the following cases: (d) if such measures are necessary for the suppression of illicit traffic in narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances. Article 108 of the same convention states: 1. All States shall cooperate in the suppression of illicit traffic in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances engaged in by ships on the high seas contrary to international conventions The legal gears at the international level make it difficult to intercept ships involved in drug trafficking without prior authorization from the State where the vessel is registered. This is an obstacle on combating narcotics trafficking at sea for which different countries have implemented a series of legal measures and bilateral agreements to intervene in a fortuitous manner and in a spirit of cooperation with other nations to reduce traffic in the seas, here who stands out in the implementation of agreements with other nations is United States by having agreements with the Caribbean and South American countries to intervene in vessels of these nations suspected of trafficking drugs. == References ==