International Journal on Criminology Volume 2, Number 1, Spring 2014 | Page 40

International Journal on Criminology
The invasive power of the narco-economy
expands well beyond Afghan
territory to follow the heroin roads. "With a
net profit of US$1.4 billion only from heroin
trade, drug traffickers earned almost 31 per
cent of the GDP of Tajikistan ($4.58 billion)
and 33 per cent of the GDP of Kyrgyzstan 70 .
"[These countries] are in a sense dependent
on the illicit opiates industry" 71 .
Important point, "[T]he value of the
Afghan opiate trade in Europe (Russia excluded)
is no less than 20 times the value of
the opiate trade in Pakistan (US$ 1 billion).
The economic power accruing to criminal
organizations running trafficking operations
to Europe via the Balkan or the Northern
routes dwarfs insurgents’ benefits in Afghanistan
and/or Pakistan. As a whole, Europe’s
stability is not threatened by the opiate trade,
but the very large revenues they extract from
the drug trade have given these groups the
means to achieve considerable influence in
some countries along trafficking routes" 72 .
In other words, since primarily enriching,
thus empowering, European and
Turkish criminal groups, heroin trafficking
could perhaps be considered a European as
much as an Afghan issue 73 .
A similar link between the illicit
and criminal economy and its impact on
the state, albeit to a lesser degree, is found
concerning cannabis in Morocco. The role
of the cannabis economy in the Rif Mountains
is well known. Serving as a social net,
it prevents social unrest, irregular migration
to Europe, and Islamism, further highlighting
its geopolitical influence 74 .
The U.S. Department of State reports,
"UNODC estimates that the cannabis
crop provides incomes for 800,000 people, and
accounts for 3.1% of Morocco’s agricultural
GDP. Police corruption and tacit non-enforcement
remains an issue in Morocco" 75 .
Of course, the impact of the cannabis
economy expands along the trafficking
routes in Europe. Rather than referring to
global figures that the reader is familiar
with, the findings of a 2007 report from the
French drugs observatory, a public institution,
deserve attention.
In France, the cannabis economy
would represent 100,000 street dealers. On
a monthly basis, a semi-wholesaler would
earn up to 46,000 euro a month; the average
salary of a manager of a company with
over 2,000 employees. The first intermediate
(supplier) would also benefit substantially
from the cannabis economy with a
monthly salary of up to 6,400 euro. The
last two levels of resellers (street dealer)
would only make a maximum of 800 euro
per month (which could be considered as
a "cannabis minimum wage" since the net
minimum salary in France is roughly 1,000
euro a month) 76 .
The scale of the cannabis economy
in France was further confirmed in a report
from the organized crime intelligence
and analysis department of French police.
"[C}riminal organizations from sensitive
69
UNODC, Corruption in Afghanistan, Press Release, February 7, 2013.
70
UNODC, The Global Afghan Opium Trade, Op. cit., 47.
71
UNODC, World Drug Report 2010, 48.
72
UNODC, Addiction, Crime and Insurgency—The Transnational Threat of Afghan Opium, 2009, 18.
73
Mickaël R. Roudaut, "Kaboul-Paris : voyage d'un gramme d'héroïne—Pouvoir et puissance de l'économie
du pavot", Op. cit.
74
Alain Labrousse, Géopolitique des drogues, PUF, Que-sais-je? Third Edition, 2011, 38.
75
Department of State, International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, Vol. I, March 2013, 240.
76
Christian Ben Lakhdar, Le trafic de cannabis en France, OFDT, November 2007, 25.
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