Asterix and Obelix in Drugland: an introduction to the special issue on ‘drug markets’

This paper provides an introduction to the articles bringing forward empirical research findings and theoretical accounts on drug markets, raising questions about the nature of the relationship between the organization of drug markets and the official frameworks surrounding them, and, importantly, about the complexity of this relationship

‘Are the ‘others’ coming?’: Evidence on ‘alien conspiracy’ from three illegal markets in Greece

In the early 1990s Greece accepted a large number of immigrants from a variety of contexts. Since then ‘organised criminality’ has become an important aspect of the immigration nexus in the country, and ethnicity has been viewed as an extremely important-if not the primary–explanatory variable. Simultaneously, there has been very little empirical research on ‘organised crime’ in Greece in general and ‘organised crime’ and ethnicity in particular. The purpose of this article, which is based on previous research that the author has conducted on three illegal markets in Greece (a. migrant smuggling business, b. the cigarette black market, and c. the market of stolen cars and car parts), is to show the extent to which these illegal markets are controlled by foreign nationals, and establish whether there is such thing as an ‘alien conspiracy’ in the particular country

The financial investigation of human trafficking in the UK::legal and practical perspectives

A significant body of law and policy has been directed to organised crime generally, with Human Trafficking remaining high on the political agenda. This article conducts a contextualised study of Human Trafficking in the UK, examining the underpinning legal framework before drawing on the expertise of key professionals in the sector, who have been interviewed for this purpose. It is suggested that it is not so much the legal framework that is the problem, but rather there are a number of practical and policy-related considerations that the government should consider as part of their efforts to combat Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking

The digital routes of human smuggling?:Evidence from the UK

There are justified concerns but little empirical evidence about the implications of the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the business of human smuggling. The knowledge base on the use of ICT in human smuggling has rarely gone beyond the rather generic observation that the Internet and mobile technologies are available to and are used by both smugglers and migrants, and there is a concrete knowledge gap regarding the extent and the mode in which the use of ICT is integrated in the process of smuggling. In this paper, which is part of a wider research effort concerned with the role of the Internet in human smuggling in the European Union, we interrogate the outlook and implications of the use of contemporary mobile technology and of social media in the organisation and conduct of human smuggling to the UK