The International Dimension: Colombians, Italians, and the European Market

Abstract

Narcotics industries rank among the world’s most successful illegal enterprises, generating annual resources of roughly $150 billion to $300 billion. Major production and trafficking complexes in the Andes, Southwest Asia, and the Golden Triangle of Southeast Asia thrive, apparently impervious to international enforcement efforts. Furthermore, with the end of the Cold War, the disintegration of hostile power blocs, and the emergence of global trading and financial systems, significant changes are occurring in the makeup and dynamics of international narcotics markets. As University of Pittsburgh scholar Phil Williams notes, such developments “have fundamentally changed the context in which criminal organizations operate and encouraged what had been predominantly domestic groups to develop into transnational criminal organizations.”²

Dr. Lee performed much of the research for this chapter while under contract to the Police Executive Research Forum in 1993–1994.