A Literature-Based Qualitative Framework for Assessment of Socio-Economic Negative Impacts of Common Illicit Cross-border Freight Logistics Flows

Global supply chains and freight logistics systems are commonly exploited in trafficking activities: for example cocaine may be shipped from Colombia to the Netherlands concealed in ocean liner structures while stolen cultural products may be hidden inside an air container, shipped for example by express courier from Egypt to Italy. In order to design effective and efficient governmental policies and corresponding regulations, enforcement priorities, inspection schemes and other countermeasures, one needs a clear picture of such common illicit flows - such an integrated research paper does not exist today. The objective of this paper is to capture and summarize some of the key characteristics, in particular socio-economic negative impacts, of following six common trafficking flows: trafficking in cocaine and heroin; counterfeit products; ozone depleting substances; firearms; stolen cultural products; and endangered species. The negative socio-economic impacts in this paper fall ultimately into following six categories: Increasing health care and social security costs; Increasing environmental damages; Increasing human suffering; Increasing market place distortions and/or unfair competition; Losses in tax revenues regarding indirect border taxes; and Losses in cultural heritage. The main outcome of this paper is an integrated matrix derived from both practitioner and academic literature to map the socio-economic negative impact -categories per each illicit flow-type. Finally, this qualitative paper suggests several quantitative research (sub-)topics for the future.