FIMUN 2020 STUDY GUIDE COMMITTEE: UNODC

Topic-2: The Disbanding of International Drug Cartels Committee Directors: Azra Rüya Kaykaç / Dilay Keskin /

Ali Emir Şanal

Distinguished Delegates,

It is our pleasure to welcome to Final Model United Nations 2020, we

are delighted for being able to host you in this year’s UNODC

committee.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime is one of the most entertaining yet

challenging committees. This committee mainly deals with illicit

drugs and organized crime. Some of the world’s biggest and most

dangerous issues are tackled here. The committee plays a big part in

researching and combating international drug cartels and crime

syndicates.

The mission of the committee is to enforce the knowledge within

delegates; you are required to do your own research, as well as to

stick with your country´s position. We expect every delegation to

have accurate information in order to debate the topics. Your

research should be based on facts and existing information about the

topics.

We aspire towards constructive debates, long term solutions, and

well-written resolutions. We’re looking forward to meeting you all. If

you have any questions don’t hesitate to contact us via:

aliemirsanaldc@gmail.com

dilaykeskin2003@gmail.com

azraruyakykac01@gmail.com

Introduction to the Topic

One of the most important issues that the UNODC oversees is the international illegal drug trade. The department since its inception has worked to curb drug trafficking around the world, from both the field and through research and data analysis. Countries with a large black market drug industry are susceptible to

experiencing corruption, leading countries to a less than unified

approach towards the disbanding of organized drug rings.

Since most 'groups' of any sort contain three or more people

working in concert and most exist for a period of time, the true

defining characteristics of organized crime groups under the

Convention are their profitdriven nature and the seriousness of the

offences they commit.

At the high-level segment of the fifty-second session of the

Commission on Narcotic Drugs, held in 2009, Heads of State, ministers

and government representatives from 132 States gathered to

evaluate progress made since 1998 towards meeting the goals and

targets established at the twentieth special session of the General

Assembly, devoted to countering the world drug problem together; to

identify future priorities and areas requiring further action and goals

and targets to be established for drug control beyond 2009; and to

adopt a political declaration and other measures to enhance

international cooperation.

Member States adopted the Political Declaration and Plan of

Action on International Cooperation towards an Integrated and

Balanced Strategy to Counter the World Drug Problem, which is

contained in the present publication.

Definition of Key Terms

UNGASS :

In April 2016, the United Nations General Assembly held a special

session ''United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Drugs''

(UNGASS) to review the world drug problem and develop a plan for

action to address it at the highest political level.

Drug cartel

A drug cartel is any criminal organization with the intention of

supplying drug trafficking operations.

Market

The business or trade in a particular product, including financial

products

Narco-terrorists

The end of the Cold War and a new focus on terrorism altered the terminology of the drug war. The narco-terrorist organization emerged

as a new threat, defined as an organized group that participated in

drug trafficking in order to fund politically motivated terrorist activities.

General Overview:

The UNGASS experience taught us that the drug problem has to

be tackled at both ends:

(a) more development assistance to reduce supply, and

(b) more attention on health to lower demand. Further progress

in these two areas would affect the intermediate stage:

(c) it would curtail the drug trade.

While the drug regime has kept under control the otherwise

enormous health threat posed by drugs, it has also had

a dramatic unintended consequence: a criminal market of

macroeconomic size.

According to our estimates, the illicit global drug trade is valued

at over US $300 billon a year. If it were a country, its gross national

product (GNP) would be listed as 21st in the world—right after

Sweden.

The drug economy is more than just mafia cartels buying estates,

businesses and aircrafts. They also buy officials, elections and parties.

In a word, they buy power. Here is wherethe drug industry threatens

security and development, in countries already stricken by poverty,

unemployment and the HIV pandemic. This happens both where illicit

crops are grown (in West Asia and the Andes), and where they are

trafficked through (West Africa, Central America, the Caribbean and

South-East Europe).

Drug markets (and their mafias) are integrated in their logistics,

financing, marketing and bribery power.

UNODC has been pro-active in this respect. It has been

brokered the Paris Pact as well as regional intelligence centres in

Central Asia (CARICC) and the Gulf (GCCI) to stem the flow of Afghan

heroin. We are promoting similar regional cooperation in the Balkans,

West Africa, the Caribbean and Central America.

Drugs infect societies through open wounds. Similarly, crime

cartels rule out-of-control regions (where there is supply), vulnerable

areas (along trade routes), and derelict ghettos (where there is

demand). Violence, instability, even terrorism are their direct cause,

and consequence. Yet, like addiction, crime can be prevented

and cured. The challenge is to reintegrate marginalized segments of

society and draw them into, rather than push them out, of the law.

Socio-economic measures, in addition to law enforcement, have

proven effective at the beginning of the drug cycle (with development

assistance offered to farmers) as well as at the end of the cycle (with

health measures offered to addicts). Urban populations,

caught in the midst of drug wars deserve the same help.

Indeed, the largest share of the world’s drug trade and abuse can be

traced to a few blocks, in a few neighbourhoods of a few big cities.

The key to regaining control of these areas is for law enforcement,

combined with social reintegration, to create viable alternatives for

young people who are lost to addiction, or who have become urban

child soldiers of crime syndicates. In a rapidly urbanizing world, drug

control will be won, or lost, in the cities.

Major Parties Involved

Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean

Many of these countries are transit countries for cocaine bound for

the main consumer markets in North America and Europe. For the

North American market, cocaine is typically transported from

Colombia to Mexico or Central America by sea and then onwards by

land to the United States and Canada.

The US authorities estimate that close to 90% of the cocaine

entering the country crosses the US/Mexico land border, most of it

entering the state of Texas. Mexico throughout the 20th and 21st

centuries has had a history of cartels, which the state has declared

war on and actively combatted since then. Among the most

prominent cartels in the world is the Gulf Cartel, on of the oldest drug

syndicates in the country. Their network is international, connecting

with crime groups in Europe, West Africa, Asia, and the Americas. The

cartel’s rivalry with Los Zetas has created a violence that is

detrimental to the people of both Mexico, and as the cartels expand,

around the world.

South America

South America still remains a prominent distributor of narcotics, with

some of the world’s most notorious cartels. Colombia remained the

world’s number one producer of cocaine until 2011, when the

government began implementing its strong anti-narcotic strategies.

Colombia remains the main source of the cocaine found in Europe,

but direct shipments from Peru and the Plurinational State of Bolivia

are far more common than in the US market. The relative importance

of Colombia seems to be in decline. For example, in 2002, the UK

authorities reported that 90% of the cocaine seized originated in

Colombia, but by 2008, the figure fell to 65%. In a number of other

European countries, Peru and the Plurinational State of Bolivia seem

to be the primary source countries of cocaine. Bolivia and Peru have

now surpassed Colombia in cocaine production, however, Colombian

cartels remain intact and at large, with strong connections in

Venezuela.

East Asia and West Africa

Both East Asia and West Africa harbor small yet rising drug cartels,

and have been main players in growing international trafficking routes

. Chinese Triads and Japanese Yakuza organizations have begun

expanding trade and established hubs in places significant Chinese

and Japanese populations, such as the United States, Canada, South

Africa, and Australia. The Chinese Triad has made its name on illicit

opium trade, but has begun to smuggle chemicals from North America

for the production of methamphetamine and ecstasy. West Africa has

seen hubs rise around Guinea and Nigeria, both spanning across

several nations and working usually with Colombian traffickers. The

Nigerian mafia has been known to ship heroin from Asian nations to

Europe and America. Ethnic Nigerians in countries such as India and

Thailand have ready access to 90% of the world’s heroin supply.

Possible Soultions for Mexican Drug Cartels

In 2006 the Mexican National Security Policy Group has came up with

a couple of recommendations that can help reduce the violence in

Mexico and further weaken the cartel such as

• The Mexican government can better use its military and law

enforcement personnel by:

o Specializing portions of its military forces to deal with specific

facets of the war on drugs by significantly reforming military training

procedures, departmentalizing the military and integrating these

departments into a larger bureaucratic system, and

o Launching a more aggressive public relations campaign

specifically targeting the major leaders of the cartels in order to

reduce the culture of fear and helplessness created by

the cartels.

The Mexican government should take action to strengthen its

community-level efforts by:

o Building strong communities in which people have a wide set

of options for legitimate careers by greater subsidizing education and

focusing on community initiatives

o Maintaining the status quo with regards to community-level self-

governance and vigilante efforts.

• The United States government should reinforce its counter-financing

of narcotics efforts by:

o Strengthening its intelligence collection and analysis

capabilities, and

o Drafting the necessary legislation to compel banks to freeze

the assets of individuals

associated with narcotics activities.

• The United States government should strengthen its efforts to

prevent U.S.-made weapons

from falling into cartel hands by:

o Making identification requirements for firearms and

ammunition more stringent, and

o Creating a task force to help Central American countries

locate, document and secure

old stockpiles of U.S. weapons that were abandoned in these

countries.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

1. Eliminate the root cause of criminality

We must address our countries’ unacceptable poverty and

inequality rates. This means leveling the playing field by

introducing universal social security, investing heavily in all

levels of education, and reactivating economic growth by

implementing a set of structural reforms. Acting aggressively

will allow our youth to aspire for better-paid jobs and find

alternatives to criminality.

2. Reform the judicial process

We have to fight impunity and corruption by expediting the judicial process. It is imperative to give individuals and companies confidence in our legal system, which is now slow, unorganized, and unable to deliver justice impartially.

This can be accomplished through a more professional investigative service that increases the state’s ability to mete out justice, and by accelerating the switch to a system based on oral trials in order to have an efficient and transparent judiciary.

3. Professionalize our police forces

We must professionalize our police forces. We require well trained and equipped police, capable of investigating proficiently and using information and intelligence to perform surgical strikes against the organized mafias, tackling their structures from the top down.

4. Joint border partnership

Developing a joint border-management agency working under harmonized customs rules will help promote trade and commerce. By eliminating redundant practices, we will facilitate economic growth while at the same time increasing each other’s security by having more control over our common borders. The time for this kind of thinking has come if we want to compete with other regional economic blocs.

Bibliography

https://www.unodc.org/documents/ungass2016/V0984963-

English.pdf

op.harvard.edu/sites/default/files_new/research-policy-

papers/TheWarOnMexicanCartels_0.pdf

https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2019/prelaunch/WDR19_Booklet_1_EXECUTIVE_SUMMARY.pdf