Global Cocaine Flows, Geographical Displacement, and Crime Convergence

Abstract

This chapter adopts a geographical and criminological perspective to examine the world’s major cocaine smuggling routes, namely from the northwest of South America to the U.S. and Europe. It provides practical examples of crime displacement and analyzes how and why cocaine trafficking routes have evolved and changed geographically over the course of the last half century. It pays particular attention to the concept of place and the comparative advantage of certain places (countries or subnational places) in the illegal supply chain of cocaine. At various places along the two main global illegal supply chains of cocaine—in Colombia, Jamaica, Mexico, Paraguay, Spain, Morocco, and The Netherlands—crime convergence can be observed, particularly in those places where emerging cocaine smuggling routes profited from previously established cannabis smuggling routes. In the wake of the ever-growing large-scale cocaine trade, this type of crime displacement and crime convergence is also associated with increased risks of violence and corruption along cocaine smuggling routes.