As with most advances in technology, science and research, there are elements which expand the capacity of our civilisation positively, and then there is the negative.
A report on the special study of the International Narcotics Control Board finds that the internet is being used by international criminal gangs and organisations to facilitate “trade and trafficking in and use of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and precursor chemicals”.
“The share of illicit transactions that occur online is still growing and constituting, every year, a larger share of the global illicit drug market, which is valued at between $200 billion and $600 billion,” states the report.
Moreover, the potential for growth and expansion in the use of the internet, social media and the other forms of modern electronic communications systems to exchange information and arrange the sale and purchase of drugs, is expanding with the continuing evolution of the technology.
It is a frightening prospect, as it is impossible and undesirable to restrict continuing communications innovation, as increasing numbers of people get access to life-transforming technology.
The report notes that encryption techniques, which protect illicit communications do the same for the illicit trade in drugs—a two-edged sword. In such an environment, the expansion of the import and export of legal goods and services “has increased the availability of drugs on the illicit market and made it more difficult for law enforcement authorities to prevent drug trafficking,” a sum reality of interaction across the world.
The high volume of international trade, which will only increase as the world becomes even more connected in the globalised trade of the 21st century, is making it extremely difficult for law enforcement to detect and intercept illicit trade, states the report.
As the legal and physical barriers to detecting illicit trade vary across countries and regions, the traffickers naturally focus on environments where security is lax and the legal systems unsophisticated.
Do we in Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean have long, in instances, inadequately policed borders? What of our monitoring systems at the ports of entry, are they rigorous and beyond corrupt practices?
Have our customs officials been sufficiently trained in and made aware of the methods used by international criminal networks to penetrate border controls?
The INCR report reveals that sophisticated criminal gangs in Europe are exploiting new internet-based technologies, inclusive of modified smartphones, “cryptophones” or “PGP” phones running EncroChat and similar software methods, to get past law enforcement surveillance. The good news, according to the report, is that law enforcement establishments internationally are decrypting the output of the criminals and scoring big victories.
One of the major recommendations is for increased government and private sector partnerships, along with international cooperation “to address evolving challenges in the Internet-driven systems”.
The task facing the region to combat this very powerful technologically-driven crime is one that must be engaged.
The Regional Security System and the Caricom Implementation Agency for Crime and Security exist and have been working to counter the obvious threats of geography. Clearly, more has to be accomplished.
It is certain that the “Murder and Mayhem” headline of the Sunday Guardian derives from activities connected to the use of communications technology to foster crime. It is, however, now up to the authorities to ensure the good of internet usage prevails more often than not.
