International Journal on Criminology
The Geopolitical Conception of Illicit Trade
Globalization has gone through this — even if the one we are interested in is
not the most visible . While this study focuses on a given geographical area
— Southern Europe , the Maghreb and beyond , the Sahel region — it must be clearly seen beforehand that this area , although immense , is only one link in a chain of transcontinental trafficking of all kinds from Hong Kong and Guangzhou in the east to the Gulf of Guinea in the west , via Central Asia , the Black Sea , the Gulf , Anatolia , and the Balkans .
It is an immense trade route that is both “ grey ” ( smuggled legal objects , tobacco , small electronics , etc .) and “ black ” ( drugs , human trafficking , etc .) at the same time , a continuous chain that has existed sometimes for centuries (“ Route of the Sultans ,” “ Route of the Balkans ,” “ Trabendo ” route ) and whose human elements are inextricably intertwined : smugglers , bandits , pimps , and Islamists — separately or together ( the “ hybrids ”).
A whole fauna that is little known to states or non-governmental organizations ( NGOs ), because most of these merchants and smugglers ( yet tens of thousands at least ):
• are not permanent migrants — they travel under tourist visas and are therefore little or not noticed by security services , especially in the “ Schengen Zone ” of the European Union , and
• are not poor or hungry , and therefore are non-existent to NGOs . Rather , they are drowned and are often invisible in migratory and tourist flows .
ROUTE OF SULTANS ( which dates back to the Ottoman Empire ): Taiwan , Hong Kong , etc ., then Central Asia — Black Sea — Turkey — Balkans — Adriatic Sea — Western Mediterranean : cheap electronics , heroin , migrants and prostitutes , tobacco / cigarettes .
ROUTE DU TRABENDO ( descent ): Southern Europe , originally Marseille — Maghreb ( Oujda in Morocco , Oran in Algeria )— Sahel and West Africa ( Senegal , Mali ): consumer goods , “ cheap whites ” cigarettes ; ( ascent ): Africa , Maghreb , Europe — illegal migrants , cocaine , etc .
BALKAN ROAD ( junction of the Sultan ’ s Road ): Turkey — Balkans — Western Europe ; ( descent to Europe ): same as Sultan ’ s Road ; ( ascent to the Black Sea ): black money , chemical drugs such as ecstasy .
SOUTH ROUTE ( junction of the Balkan Route ): southern Italy — Libya — Tunisia — the Sahel .
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