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

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

A 'virtuous circle' of illicit markets? Smuggling and colonial state building in the Italian interwar Dodecanese

Can illegal markets play a role in a state’s conscious strategies and efforts to establish and further order? Are there conditions under which law enforcement takes second place to wider considerations of national interest? The relationship between state policy and illicit economic activity is typically understood as an oppositional one: beyond a sense of lawlessness, illegal markets exist as a threat to the state’s economic and fiscal interests. In fact, our contemporary understanding of illegal markets is underpinned by the understanding of ‘organised crime’, which is often equally seen as inherently oppositional to a state’s claim on law and order over its territory. Contemporary discourses leave very little margin for a consideration of the relationship between state policy makers and regulators as anything other than conflictual