Illegal drug trade

The illegal drug trade or drug trafficking is a global black market and includes the growing, making, distribution, and sale of illegal drugs. While some drugs are legal to possess and sell, in most areas laws do not allow the trade of some drugs.

Trade in drugs includes many which, correctly used, have a medical function.

Those drugs often include heroin, cocaine, marijuana or others. Drug traffickers may be punished with time in prison for several years. In some countries, the crime carries the death penalty.

Main heroin-producing countries in the world (colored in red)

Map of International illegal drug connections

Drug trafficking air routes monitored by the US Southern Command

Punishment

Several countries use the death penalty to punish people for drug trafficking.

Illegal Drug Trade Media

US Coast Guard video of drug smugglers in high-speed boat dumping 2,300 pounds (1,000 kg) of cocaine in Eastern Pacific Ocean
The nephews of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Efraín Antonio Campo Flores and Francisco Flores de Freitas, after their arrest by the US Drug Enforcement Administration on 10 November 2015
Drug trafficking air routes in South America monitored by the United States Southern Command
US$207 million and additional amounts in other currencies were confiscated from Mexican Zhenli Ye Gon in 2007.
Hashish seized in Operation Albatross, a joint operation of Afghan officials, NATO, and the DEA
5 cm hashish packages taken from a smuggler by police
Maher al-Assad, younger brother of Bashar al-Assad and commander of the Syrian Republican Guards, oversees the operations of Syria's drug trade.
The US Coast Guard offloads seized cocaine in Miami Beach, Florida, May 2014.
ICE arresting an individual in Arizona, October 2011
Drug trafficking tunnel discovered near US-Mexico border in San Diego–Tijuana metropolitan area