Assignment 1: Research Paper Drug Trafficking

Assignment 1: Research Paper Drug Trafficking Name Institutional Affiliation Assignment 1: Research Paper Drug Trafficking Drug trafficking is a global menace that continues to flourish both in developed and developing economies. The illegal trade heavily relies on organized crime to attain over 20% of its profit margins (1). While the activity enriches its stakeholders, it imposes great detrimental effects on the society as it endangers other business operations, ravishes the affected communities, sprains public institutions and drags down the entire economy. Currently, drug trafficking between the United States of America and Mexico raises great international relations tensions as the gangs involved continue to expand their spheres of influence by managing all lucrative smuggling opportunities, engaging with powerful criminal networks and transnational gangs. The current study seeks to undertake a critical analysis of drug trafficking as a transnational crime that affects the political, economic and social relations established between the United States and Mexico. Both the Mexican and the United States of America’s criminal laws define drug trafficking as a federal offense pursued by gangs that are highly specialized and fully interconnected (3). Such a categorization is based on the fact that most of the drug traffickers engage in other unscrupulous acts such as evading taxes, kidnapping and smuggling. Currently, Mexico experiences a sharp increase in drug-related crime rates particularly in major urban centers. The United Nations attributes such a premise to the fact that the country acts as a strategic point of smuggling drugs from other South American economies to the United States (1). To date, Mexico is considered as the largest partner of the United States in terms of the foreign supply of marijuana and heroin used in the U.S market for industrial purposes. Comparati...