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.
Punishment
Several countries use the death penalty to punish people for drug trafficking.
Illegal Drug Trade Media
Video of drug smugglers in high-speed boat dumping 2,300 pounds (1,000 kg) of cocaine in Eastern Pacific Ocean – video from U.S. Coast Guard.
The nephews of President Nicolás Maduro, Efraín Antonio Campo Flores and Francisco Flores de Freitas, after their arrest by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration on 10 November 2015.
US$207 million and additional amounts in other currencies were confiscated from Mexican Zhenli Ye Gon in 2007.
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 U.S. Coast Guard offloads seized cocaine in Miami Beach, Florida, May 2014
ICE arresting an individual in Arizona, October 2011
Related pages
Other websites
- News, information, laws and photos of illegal drugs, narcotics and drug trafficking
- United Nations - Drug Programme Archived 2007-11-13 at the Wayback Machine
- Geopium: Geopolitics of Illicit Drugs in Asia Archived 2019-04-02 at the Wayback Machine (English and French)
- United Nations World Drug Report Archived 2007-11-06 at the Wayback Machine
- Illicit drug issues by country, by the CIA Archived 2010-12-29 at the Wayback Machine