The Relationship of Terrorism and Drugs

The Relationship of Terrorism and Drugs

Terrorism has many and varied links to the drug trade. Terrorists may use drugs for funding of their cause; may include drugs as part of their cause, as in Peru; or terrorism may be the result of the drug trade, as it is in Columbia's Extraditables and Italy's mafia. With the many linkages between the two crimes it seems that to crackdown on one you must crackdown on the other. The ties between the two are such that enforcement of one will hurt the other, to stop terrorism it would be useful to stop it's funding, purpose, and cause.

Drugs are a renewable resource, it?s relatively inexpensive to grow them in fertile soil. There is an enormous profit margin in the drug trade so to those, like terrorists, who are already outside the law, the lure of easy money is strong. Many groups engage in drug trafficking. A notable example is Fuerzas Armadas Revolutionarias de Columbia (FARC) in Columbia. FARC is the military wing of the Columbian Communist Party and has been established since 1966. FARC has ?cooperated with drug interests, offering protection in exchange for money to purchase weapons and supplies? (Henderson, 61). There are other examples throughout the golden triangle and golden crescent where drugs are big business. ?Drugs have become the principle currency for the purchase of weapons? (Jamieson, 72) and this is a problem. Countries then find themselves attacked on two fronts, by both terrorists and the illicit drugs used for funding. Drugs provide funds through more than cultivation. Various groups aid in drug trafficking and gain funding through services, not growing, ?Tamils also find employment as couriers...as a means of financing their independence struggle in...

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...organized crime is still terrorism, although it?s directed and self-serving it has political aspects and still fits most definitions.

In these brief examples we gain a sense that the war on drugs and the war on terrorism overlap. These two efforts have bonds that need to be explored. In order to effectively target terrorism you also need to address the drug trade that in various instances provides funding, purpose, or reason for the terrorism.

Bibliography:

Henderson, Harry. Terrorism. New York: Facts on File, Inc., 2001

Jamieson, Alison. Terrorism and Drug Trafficking in the 1990s. Dartmouth: Research Institute for the Study of Conflict and Terrorism, 1994

Palmer, David Scott. ?Peru, the Drug Business and Shining Path: Between Scylla and Charbydis?? Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs. Vol. 34, No. 3. PP 65-88