We investigate the effect of economic sanctions on trade flows in countries sharing a border with sanctioned states. According to trade models, sanctions are expected to reduce trade flows as they disrupt established trading routes and economic relationships with suppliers and customers....

As part of a package to address migrant smuggling, on 28 November 2023, the European Commission proposed a regulation to strengthen police cooperation and Europol's role in the fight against migrant smuggling and trafficking in human beings (COM(2023) 754). The proposal was not supported by an...

Efficient and interconnected logistics networks, like postal services, provide powerful tools for criminal groups to organize cross-border drug trafficking by exploiting legitimate infrastructure. Despite postal services becoming inadvertent facilitators in smuggling, focused research on this...

At least since Russia deployed North Korean artillery and ballistic missiles against Ukraine, it is obvious that Pyongyang fuels conflicts far beyond North-East Asia. Yet, the indirect threats that North Korea poses to Europe's security and stability have developed a new quality: Pyongyang is...

Rising poverty and social and political unrest are pushing increasing numbers of people towards criminal networks that facilitate unauthorised entry, transit or stay in the EU. This new CORDIS results pack features seven EU-funded projects that contribute to the fight against migrant smuggling.

Tackling migrant smuggling in the digital space presents significant challenges for judicial authorities across Europe. Organised criminal groups use digital tools, online platforms, social media and encrypted telephones to offer their illegal services. Increasingly, this digital dimension of...

Rising poverty and social and political unrest are pushing increasing numbers of people towards criminal networks that facilitate unauthorised entry, transit or stay in the EU. This new CORDIS results pack features seven EU-funded projects that contribute to the fight against migrant smuggling.

Rising poverty and social and political unrest are pushing increasing numbers of people towards criminal networks that facilitate unauthorised entry, transit or stay in the EU. This new CORDIS results pack features seven EU-funded projects that contribute to the fight against migrant smuggling.

Migrant smuggling and trafficking in human beings (THB) pose a serious threat to the EU's security, as well as to the irregular migrants and THB victims involved. Both crime areas are embedded in the broader serious and organised crime environment, with criminals taking advantage of existing...

In May 2023 Frontex coordinated a joint action day (JAD) against the smuggling of counterfeit goods at the external EU borders, including maritime ones. The JAD was implemented under EMPACT and was led and co-led respectively by Bulgaria and Portugal. The operational activity also focused on the...

On request from the Focus Group on Migrant Smuggling supported by Eurojust, definitions of the criminal offence migrant smuggling or facilitation of illegal immigration were collected by Eurojust. The collection is based on contributions from Member States and contains the definitions in either...

This scoping review systematically examines the definitions, challenges, and methodologies for estimating the illegal gambling market, spanning literature from 2000 to 2023. Given the clandestine nature of illegal gambling and its significant economic and social implications, understanding its...

Wildlife crime drives existential harms including biodiversity loss and climate change, disproportionately affecting the Global South. Criminal justice approaches dominate the public response, yet scant evidence exists on how corruption, an economic crime, undermines deterrence and exacerbates...

At least since Russia deployed North Korean artillery and ballistic missiles against Ukraine, it is obvious that Pyongyang fuels conflicts far beyond North-East Asia. Yet, the indirect threats that North Korea poses to Europe's security and stability have developed a new quality: Pyongyang is...

The illicit drug trade generates billions of dollars and sustains transnational criminal organisations. Drug markets can destabilise governance and undermine development. Data indicate increasing drug use in South Africa. However, information on the size and value of the drug market is limited....

Legal and illegal markets often coexist. In theory, marginal legalization can either substitute for the remaining parallel market, or complement it via scale effects. I study migrants crossing without prior authorization at the US southwest border, where large-scale unlawful crossing coexists...

Smuggling harms the economy and development of a country. Various statistical methods can be used to determine the geographical distribution of smuggling within a country. In this regard, clustering techniques (both classical and spatial analysis) have been used to present an overview of...

We study a Force-down/Shoot-down intervention in Brazil that led cocaine traffickers to shift from air to river routes. Using data on cocaine production, homicides, and the network of rivers in the Amazon, we provide evidence that violence increased in municipalities along river routes...

"Illicit financial flows (IFFs) associated with commodity trade erode the tax base of resource-rich developing countries. Efforts to curb IFFs and reform taxation stumble over enhanced North-South tensions but remain crucial to helping poorer countries mobilise domestic resources for...

International trade in food has helped to reduce global poverty and hunger. However, illicit trade in food and food fraud undermine the global food system and endanger public health. This publication looks into the challenges of combating illicit practices, such as smuggling and counterfeiting....

This paper investigates whether sanctions imposed in the wake of the Ukraine crisis by Western countries and Russia have been evaded by analyzing monthly product-level trade patterns. Consolidating different methods from the literature related to the detection of illicit trade, I find that goods...

This paper analyzes the different trading networks, the flux of merchandise, and the actors involved in the act of crossing goods through the United States-Mexico border, particularly in the Tijuana-San Diego region. It argues that the line dividing both countries works differently depending on...

My work studies how the construction of international highways and the rise in automobile consumption in northern Mexico during the 1930s and 1940s facilitated the illegal entry of thousands of stolen cars from the United States and encouraged the expansion of vehicle theft in the U.S....

This review critically engages with the debate on the importance of corruption for illicit tobacco trade. It proposes to solve the disagreement in the literature by advancing a nuanced analysis of how different types of corruption are linked to various forms of illicit tobacco trade. It...

I present here selected articles that originated from the Simposio de antropología "entre lo legal y lo illegal" in Monterrey, Mexico, November 2019. These articles focus on Latin American borders: the U.S.-Mexico border, the Brazil-Paraguay border, and the Argentina-Bolivia border. These Latin...

This article aims to explain the smuggling of goods in the Mexico-US border from Wittgenstein's perspective on the worlds of life and language games. This work advocates for an approach that considers the diversity of circumstances, the hierarchical inequalities, the amalgam between actors and...

We investigate the effect of economic sanctions on trade flows in countries sharing a border with sanctioned states. According to trade models, sanctions are expected to reduce trade flows as they disrupt established trading routes and economic relationships with suppliers and customers....

This paper explores the impact of illegal markets on modern slavery, focusing on the Brazilian government's complete shutdown of the mahogany market in the late 90s. Utilizing a quasi-experimental design that exploits the natural variation in the occurrence of mahogany trees in Brazilian...

The scale of migrant smuggling has reached new and devastating heights. The uncontrolled and irregular arrivals brought about by smuggling put systems under strain and undermine effective migration management. The mobility of people needs to be managed through the right policy and legislation,...

Migrant smuggling is a global and common challenge that requires common solutions: Migrant smuggling is a criminal activity that disrespects human life and impacts EU internal security in the pursuit of profit. • More than 90% of the irregular migrants who reach the EU came through the...