Interdiction Efforts Research Articles

Genetic Enhancement in Sport: Just Another Form of Doping?

Patented genetic technologies such as the ACTN3 genetic test are adding a new dimension to the types of performance enhancement available to elite athletes. Organized sports organizations and governments are seeking to prevent athletes' use of biomedical enhancements. This paper discusses how these interdiction efforts will affect the use and availability of genetic technologies that can enhance athletic performance. The paper provides a working definition of enhancement, and in light of that definition and the concerns of the sports community, reviews genetic enhancement as a result of varied technologies, including, genetic testing to identify innate athletic ability, performance-enhancing drugs developed with genetic science and technology, pharmacogenetics, enhancement through reproductive technologies, somatic gene transfer, and germ line gene transfer.

Rattling nucleons: New developments in active interrogation of special nuclear material

Active interrogation is a vigorous area of research and development due to its promise of offering detection and characterization capabilities of special nuclear material in environments where passive detection fails. The primary value added by active methods is the capability to penetrate shielding—special nuclear material itself, incidental materials, or intentional shielding—and advocates hope that active interrogation will provide a solution to the problem of detecting shielded uranium, which is at present the greatest obstacle to interdiction efforts. The technique also provides a unique benefit for quantifying nuclear material in high background-radiation environments, an area important for nuclear material safeguards and material accountancy. Progress has been made in the field of active interrogation on several fronts, most notably in the arenas of source development, systems integration, and the integration and exploitation of multiple fission and non-fission signatures. But penetration of interrogating radiation often comes at a cost, not only in terms of finance and dose but also in terms of induced backgrounds, system complexity, and extended measurement times (including set up and acquisition). These costs make the calculus for deciding to implement active interrogation more subtle than may be apparent. The purpose of this review is thus to examine existing interrogation methods, compare and contrast their attributes and limitations, and identify missions where active interrogation may hold the most promise.

A systematic review of methamphetamine precursor regulations

To assess the effectiveness of methamphetamine precursor regulations in reducing illicit methamphetamine supply and use. A systematic review of 12 databases was used to identify studies that had evaluated the impact of methamphetamine precursor regulations on methamphetamine supply and/or use. The guidelines of the Effective Practice and Organization of Care Group (EPOC) of The Cochrane Collaboration were used to determine which study designs were included and assess their quality. Ten studies met the inclusion criteria. These studies evaluated 15 interventions (13 regulations and two related interdiction efforts), all of which were located in North America. Interventions had consistent impacts across various indicators of methamphetamine supply and use. Seven of the 15 interventions produced reductions in methamphetamine indicators (ranging from 12% to 77%). Two of the largest impacts were seen following interdiction efforts, involving the closure of rogue pharmaceutical companies. There was no evidence of a shift into other types of drug use, or injecting use, although the impact on the synthetic drug market was not examined. Null effects were related largely to the existence of alternative sources of precursor chemicals or the availability of imported methamphetamine. Methamphetamine precursor regulations can reduce indicators of methamphetamine supply and use. Further research is needed to determine whether regulations can be effective outside North America, particularly in developing countries, and what impact they have on the broader synthetic drug market. Improved data on precursor diversion are needed to facilitate the evaluation of precursor regulations.

Methamphetamine: Here we go again?

Following more than two decades of generally increasing trends in the use and abuse of methamphetamine in certain parts of the country, prevalence indicators for the drug began to decrease in the mid-2000's—but was this decrease signaling the end of the “meth problem”? This paper has compiled historical and recent data from supply and demand indicators to provide a broader context within which to consider the changes in trends over the past half decade. Data suggest supply-side accommodation to changes in precursor chemical restrictions, with prevalence indicators beginning to attenuate in the mid-2000's and then increasing again by 2009–2010. Results support the need for continuing attention to control and interdiction efforts appropriate to the changing supply context and to continuing prevention efforts and increased number of treatment programs.

Shooting up: counterinsurgency and the war on drugs

Most policymakers see counterinsurgency and counternarcotics policy as two sides of the same coin. Stop the flow of drug money, the logic goes, and the insurgency will wither away. But the conventional wisdom is dangerously wrongheaded, as Vanda Felbab-Brown argues in Shooting Up . Counternarcotics campaigns, particularly those focused on eradication, typically fail to bankrupt belligerent groups that rely on the drug trade for financing. Worse, they actually strengthen insurgents by increasing their legitimacy and popular support. Felbab-Brown, a leading expert on drug interdiction efforts and counterinsurgency, draws on interviews and fieldwork in some of the world's most dangerous regions to explain how belligerent groups have become involved in drug trafficking and related activities, including kidnapping, extortion, and smuggling. Shooting Up shows vividly how powerful guerrilla and terrorist organizations -- including Peru's Shining Path, the FARC and the paramilitaries in Colombia, and the Taliban in Afghanistan -- have learned to exploit illicit markets. In addition, the author explores the interaction between insurgent groups and illicit economies in frequently overlooked settings, such as Northern Ireland, Turkey, and Burma. While aggressive efforts to suppress the drug trade typically backfire, Shooting Up shows that a laissez-faire policy toward illicit crop cultivation can reduce support for the belligerents and, critically, increase cooperation with government intelligence gathering. When combined with interdiction targeting major traffickers, this strategy gives policymakers a better chance of winning both the war against the insurgents and the war on drugs.

The Business of Piracy in Somalia

This article argues that understanding why Somali piracy has resisted control efforts requires understanding that it is a criminal business rather than a conventional international security problem. We statistically model Somali piracy and draw two conclusions: first, piracy increases with economic stability, and second, naval interdiction efforts are stabilising but not significantly reducing piracy. We argue that these conclusions are not surprising if piracy is understood as an organised crime. Our argument has four components. First, Somali piracy is a land-based problem, and naval control mechanisms are not deterring pirates. Second, improving Somalia's anarchic political situation will not necessarily stop piracy: our statistical analysis demonstrates that piracy is a business which improves with a more stable operating environment. Third, piracy is organised criminal activity, and like other organised crime groups, will be difficult to control, especially if it becomes embedded in state structures. Finally, we argue that few of the relevant players have any real incentives to alter their behaviour.

An Overlapping Networks Approach to Resource Allocation for Domestic Counterterrorism

Motivated by the links between terror and crime and the difficulty in directly detecting terror activity, this article formulates and solves a resource allocation problem on overlapping networks to determine if interdiction efforts may be able to take advantage of these connections. The government, knowing only the general structure and overlap of the networks, allocates its scarce resources to investigate each terror and criminal network. There are two stages to the investigation: an initial investigation of all nodes (i.e., terrorists or criminals) and a secondary investigation of criminals identified during the initial investigation to determine if they are terrorists. Applying the model to data derived from a population of terrorists in the United States between 1971–2003 suggests that the government may be able to exploit the terror connections of crimes that are relatively uncommon, somewhat easy to detect, and are attractive to terrorists.

Resource Use Among Rural Agricultural Households Near Protected Areas in Vietnam: The Social Costs of Conservation and Implications for Enforcement

This article examines the use of forests in a protected area by nearby agriculturalists in central Vietnam. Research indicates that the majority of rural farmers interviewed who lived near a state designated protected area were receiving both subsistence and cash incomes from forest-based activities, primarily from the collection of forest products. However, much of the collection of forest produce was officially illegal, as it occurred in state protected forests, and interdiction efforts were on the increase. Yet, little attention has been paid in Vietnam to the need for income substitution for households who lose access to forest produce as a result of conservation enforcement, particularly in the case of farmers who live near, but not in, protected areas; their resources use has been 'invisible' due to a lack of attention and research on the topic. This misunderstanding of the importance of forests to rural farmers has the potential to result in households facing adverse welfare and livelihood outcomes as protected areas boundaries are tightened, and local communities face increased opportunity costs due to stricter conservation enforcement. The article concludes that substitution for loss of income due to conservation activities would best be achieved through carefully targeted interventions to specific high-impact and high-dependency households. Additionally, investments in new sources of wage labor and other low capital-input activities, rather than in agriculture, would likely be of most benefit.

Interdicting a Nuclear-Weapons Project

A “proliferator” seeks to complete a first small batch of fission weapons as quickly as possible, whereas an “interdictor” wishes to delay that completion for as long as possible. We develop and solve a max-min model that identifies resource-limited interdiction actions that maximally delay completion time of the proliferator's weapons project, given that the proliferator will observe any such actions and adjust his plans to minimize that time. The model incorporates a detailed project-management (critical path method) submodel, and standard optimization software solves the model in a few minutes on a personal computer. We exploit off-the-shelf project-management software to manage a database, control the optimization, and display results. Using a range of levels for interdiction effort, we analyze a published case study that models three alternate uranium-enrichment technologies. The task of “cascade loading” appears in all technologies and turns out to be an inherent fragility for the proliferator at all levels of interdiction effort. Such insights enable policy makers to quantify the effects of interdiction options at their disposal, be they diplomatic, economic, or military.

Forecasting the Risk of Brown Tree Snake Dispersal from Guam: a Mixed Transport‐Establishment Model

The brown tree snake (Boiga irregularis) is a devastating invader that has ecologically and economically affected Guam and is poised to disperse further. Interdiction efforts are being conducted on Guam and some of the potential receiving sites, but no tools exist for evaluating the potential for snake incursion; thus, the amount of effort that should be invested in protecting particular sites is unknown. We devised a model that predicts the relative risk of establishment of the brown tree snake (BTS) at a given site. To calculate overall risk, we incorporated in the model information on the likelihood of an organism entering the transportation system, avoiding detection, surviving to arrive at another location, and establishing at the receiving end. On the basis of documented rates of snake arrival at receiving sites, the model produced realistic predictions of invasion risk. Model outputs can thus be used to prioritize interdiction efforts to focus on especially vulnerable receiving locations. We provide examples of the utility of the model in evaluating the impacts of changes in transportation parameters. Finally, the model can be used to evaluate the impacts that BTS establishment at an additional site and that creation of a new source of snakes would have. The use of qualitative inputs allows the model to be adapted by substituting data on other invasive species or transportation systems.

The War on Illegal Drugs in Producer and Consumer Countries: A Simple Analytical Framework

This paper develops a simple model of the war against illegal drugs in producer and consumer countries. Our analysis shows how the equilibrium quantity of illegal drugs, as well as their price, depends on key parameters of the model, among them the price elasticity of demand, and the effectiveness of the resources allocated to enforcement and prevention and treatment policies. Importantly, this paper studies the trade-off faced by drug consumer country's government between prevention policies (aimed at reducing the demand for illegal drugs) and enforcement policies (aimed at reducing the production and trafficking of illegal drugs in producer countries). We use available data for the war against cocaine production and trafficking in Colombia, and that against consumption in the U.S. in order to calibrate the unobservable parameters of the model. Among these are the effectiveness of prevention and treatment policies in reducing the demand for cocaine; the relative effectiveness of interdiction efforts at reducing the amount of cocaine reaching consumer countries; and the cost of illegal drug production and trafficking activities in producer countries.

Heroin in brown, black and white: Structural factors and medical consequences in the US heroin market

Background Heroin coming into the United States historically comes from three widely dispersed geographical regions: Southwest Asia, Southeast Asia and Mexico. A fourth source of US-bound heroin, from Colombia, originated in the early 1990s. The fact that the four heroin sources produce differing morphologies and qualities of heroin has not been critically examined. In addition, it is not well established how the contemporary competing dynamics of interdiction, or restriction of heroin flows across international boundaries, and neoliberal, e.g., global expansion of free trade, policies are affecting heroin markets. This paper will highlight changes in the US heroin market, including source trends, the political economy of the now dominant source and the resultant effects on the heroin risk environment by US region. Methods Using a structural and historical framework this paper examines two decades of secondary data sources, including government and drug control agency documents, on heroin flows together with published work on the political and economic dynamics in Latin America. Results Co-occurring neoliberal economic reforms may have contributed to paradoxical effects of US/Colombian interdiction efforts. Since entering the US market, heroin from Colombia has been distributed at a much higher quality and lower retail price. An increasingly exclusive market has developed with Mexican and Colombian heroin gaining market share and displacing Asian heroin. These trends have had dramatic effects on the risk environment for heroin consumers. An intriguing factor is that different global sources of heroin produce substantially different products. Plausible associations exist between heroin source/form and drug use behaviours and harms. For example, cold water-soluble powdered heroin (sources: Asia, Colombia) may be associated with higher HIV prevalence in the US, while low-solubility “black tar” heroin (BTH; source: Mexico) is historically used in areas with reduced HIV prevalence. BTH is associated with soft tissue infections caused by Clostridium bacteria. Conclusion Source and type of heroin are structural factors in the risk environment of heroin users: source dictates distribution and type predicts practice. How specific types of heroin are used and with what risk is therefore distributed geographically. Continued flux in the heroin market and its effects on the risk environment for drug users deserves further attention.

Book Review: Lifting the veil on drug smuggling

Much research and public attention has been focused on the more readily apparent aspects of the illicit drug trade, namely low-level street dealing and drug abuse. Little research however, has highlighted the less visible and higher level features of drug dealing. Drug Smugglers on Drug Smuggling fills that void. Much like the FBI’s work on serial killers and Wright and Decker’s (1997) work on street robbers, Decker and Townsend Chapman go directly to the source, drug smugglers themselves, to learn about that aspect of drug trafficking. With the exception of some methamphetamine and marijuana, drugs abused by Americans are produced in foreign countries and then smuggled into the United States to be sold to consumers. Smuggling, that part of the drug trade whose function it is to surreptitiously transport the drugs across U.S. borders, is at the center of the current study. The book begins by summarizing the few previous studies conducted on smuggling and interdiction efforts. Building upon that past research, the authors desire to understand deterrence from the drug smuggler’s point of view. In order to do so, they effectively conduct a thorough examination of the complexities and nuances of drug smuggling. To begin, Decker and Townsend Chapman constructed a survey aimed at collecting data from two areas. The first was background information on smugglers and their operations, the second was information on the smugglers’ perception of risk, as well as what level of risk would have deterred them from smuggling. They then identified and interviewed thirty-four federal inmates who had been convicted of drug smuggling. These interviews provide the quantitative and qualitative data for the study. The book can be divided into two sections. The first, and larger, part of the book, details the characteristics of drug smugglers and of drug smuggling. As part of that depiction, the authors describe the history of drug smuggling, from the more organized distribution system of the Medellin and Cali cartels, to the present day Crime Law Soc Change (2008) 50:403–405 DOI 10.1007/s10611-008-9115-7

The War on Illegal Drugs in Producer and Consumer Countries: A Simple Analytical Framework

This paper develops a simple model of the war against illegal drugs in producer and consumer countries. Our analysis shows how the equilibrium quantity of illegal drugs, as well as their price, depends on key parameters of the model, among them the price elasticity of demand, and the effectiveness of the resources allocated to enforcement and prevention and treatment policies. Importantly, this paper studies the trade-off faced by drug consumer country`s government between prevention policies (aimed at reducing the demand for illegal drugs) and enforcement policies (aimed at reducing the production and trafficking of illegal drugs in producer countries). We use available data for the war against cocaine production and trafficking in Colombia, and that against consumption in the U.S. in order to calibrate the unobservable parameters of the model. Among these are the effectiveness of prevention and treatment policies in reducing the demand for cocaine; the relative effectiveness of interdiction efforts at reducing the amount of cocaine reaching consumer countries; and the cost of illegal drug production and trafficking activities in producer countries.

Drug Availability in High Schools in a Border Town: A Case Study Pertinent to Federal Drug Interdiction and Border Security Operations

Over the past couple of decades, the U.S. has spent billions of dollars on the “war on drugs”, with a sizeable portion of the funds going to interdiction efforts along the U.S.–Mexico border. The focus on interdiction is based on the thesis that one of the best means of curbing illegal drug use is to prevent illegal drugs from entering the country. As a means of examining the efficacy of drug interdiction operations, this paper provides an analysis of data on the availability of drugs in high schools in a border town; data which were gathered from a survey of high school students who reside in one of the most heavily fortified regions along the U.S.–Mexico border. The majority of students reported that it is easy to purchase marijuana, cocaine, and rohypnol in the schools; findings which suggest the escalation of interdiction efforts along the border has failed to halt the flow of illegal drugs into the U.S.

Interdiction Day: Covert Surveillance Operations, Drugs, and Serious Crime in an Inner-City Neighborhood

This article describes a drug trafficking interdiction in the Brightwood neighborhood in Indianapolis, Indiana. It defines terminology and effects of police crackdowns, interventions, and interdictions. The interdiction effort is empirically linked to decreases in crime (calls for service [CFS]) in the interdiction neighborhood over and above change in the control neighborhood— with one exception: drug CFS. The findings support the accumulation of evidence that interdictions based on problem-oriented policing can be successful. Short, largely invisible interdictions of this type can have positive impacts on reported neighborhood crime and in so doing might improve inner-city development options.

The Court of Vice Admiralty at Sierra Leone and the Abolition of the West African Slave Trade

Drawing on archival sources, this Note explores an early experiment in humanitarian intervention undertaken by the Court of Vice Admiralty at Sierra Leone through the suppression of the West African slave trade during the early decades of the nineteenth century. Part I discusses the social and geopolitical pressures that helped British abolitionists realize their hopes of creating a free colony in Africa. Part II demonstrates the manner in which Robert Thorpe, Chief Judge of the Court of Vice Admiralty at Sierra Leone, enforced Britain’s 1807 Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade against British and foreign traders alike. Part III argues that Thorpe’s court, in conjunction with aggressive interdictions by the British Navy and privateers, forced Europe’s great slaving powers to the negotiating table and secured their abandonment of the slave trade through the creation of multilateral institutions equipped to adjudicate captured slave ships. This Part also discusses the Le Louis case, which demonstrated the impact of Thorpe’s court on the legal regime governing free navigation. Part IV then analyzes the relevance of Thorpe’s experiment in humanitarian intervention to current interdiction efforts undertaken by the Proliferation Security Initiative. author. Yale Law School, J.D. expected 2006; University of Cambridge, M.Phil., Political Thought & Intellectual History; University College London, M.A., Legal & Political Theory. I conducted the archival research on which this Note is based while a research assistant to David Sharpe, Professor Emeritus at The George Washington Law School. I am deeply indebted to him for allowing me to publish it in the present Note, and am grateful to him for his unstinting support. I also wish to thank Edgar J. McManus, W. Michael Reisman, David Richardson, and James Q. Whitman for their valuable comments on early versions of this Note, and Tad Heuer for his editorial assistance. HELFMAN 3/2/2006 5:40:54 PM the court of vice admiralty at sierra leone

Characteristics of Brown Treesnakes Boiga irregularis removed from Guam's transportation network

The accidental introduction of the Brown Treesnake Boiga irregularis to Guam led to catastrophic ecological and economic consequences, including the extirpation of most native forest birds and millions of dollars in damages to the island's power distribution system. Since colonizing the island in the late 1940s, Brown Treesnakes associated with cargo from Guam have arrived at numerous locations throughout the world. Concerns for the potential establishment of other populations have led to intensive control efforts, aimed at the prevention of snake dispersal from the island. Information regarding snakes entering the outbound cargo flow is critical in the development and implementation of both operational control strategies and research necessary to improve available control technologies. Data collected from 31 snakes removed from the outbound cargo network on Guam reveal the typical snake in cargo is smaller in snout-vent length than the average snake captured using traps or hand capture in support of operational control. Potential reasons for small snakes in cargo include the presence of a snake cohort refractory to capture methods, and/or the nomadic behaviour of sub-adults. Additionally, snakes have been found in nearly every location that handles or processes cargo, indicating the need for containment efforts throughout the outbound shipping process. Intensive containment, coupled with the continued development of techniques that effectively capture small snakes, is necessary for successful interdiction efforts.

Bus interdiction efforts by the police:United States v. Drayton

The Supreme Court recently addressed the constitutionality of police interdiction efforts when conducting bus sweeps. The Court held that law enforcement officers are not required by the Fourth Amendment to “advise bus passengers of their right not to cooperate and to refuse consent to searches” (U.S. v. Drayton, 2002, p. 2107). The decision may have implications for how the judicial branch will balance the needs of law enforcement against citizen freedoms in the post-September 11th era. This article explores the surrounding legal issues, the case opinion, and policy implications of this case.

A Litmus Test for Cocaine

Biomolecules are increasingly used to construct sensors for the detection of small molecules, such as drugs or explosives, because of their high sensitivity and selectivity. However, it is not enough that the sensor recognizes and binds the target molecule; the interaction must also result in a detectable signal, ideally a visible color change. Stojanovic and Landry describe a sensor based on an aptamer (an oligonucleotide) previously shown to bind cocaine with selectivity and sensitivity. After screening 35 dyes for color changes upon addition to cocaine-aptamer mixtures, they selected a cyanine compound to prepare their aptamer-dye sensor. When cocaine was added, it displaced the dye, causing a decrease in absorption at 760 nm. The micromolar affinity of the aptamer may prove sufficient for a handheld detection device in the cocaine supply interdiction effort. — JFU