OPINION: Drugs and the Arms Race in Narco-Terror

Sakthi Muralikrishna | Kyodo News

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UNODC delegates discuss border control policies.

In 2015, a drone posing a threat to important facilities and other locations was intercepted and captured in mid-air by a large Metropolitan Police Department drone using a suspended net. The video was provided by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department and distributed by JIJI Press in this context in 2015. However, recent social media posts portray this event as the Tokyo Police chasing yakuza drug-smuggling drones through the city, with the police supposedly claiming that they had not had that much fun in years.

Though the idea of the police chasing yakuza drones through the streets of Tokyo makes for a spectacular TV-show concept, it has yet to come to fruition in Japan – and fortunately so. The issues of drugs and narcotics extend beyond the police and criminals and to the stability of a society.

The smuggling and abuse of drugs have been issues that Japan takes a firm stance on, and the country has worked to keep its borders strictly free of narcotics.

Take the issue of drones, for example. Following the incident in which a small unmanned aircraft, or "drone", was found on the roof of the Prime Minister's Official Residence, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department announced that it would become the first in the country to form an "Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Response Unit" within its riot police force and introduce "interceptor drones" to capture suspicious aircraft in the air.

Such measures, while initially pioneered by Japan in 2015, have grown more critical in the Americas, where the drones used by narco-terrorists have become a novel threat. With narcoterrorism and drug cartels reigning in several parts of the world, the advancement of technology has resulted in an arms race between cartels and law enforcement.

The adoption of drones by transnational criminal organisations (TCOs) in Latin America is becoming a growing cause for concern, with TCOs deploying tactics similar to those of drone warfare in the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War, loading drones with toxic chemicals and bombs to create attack drones.

Narco-terrorist organisations are advancing their arsenals at a rapid rate, employing not just pistols and automatic rifles but now heavy explosives, mortars built from gas-tank tubes and even narcotanques – armoured trucks armed with heavy machine guns. Such heavy weapons are now being used to spearhead cartel assaults in Mexico, with law enforcement struggling to keep up.

The issue of the cartel arms race is not limited only to land and air, but the sea as well. The U.S. Coast Guard has captured submarines operated by drug cartels to smuggle narcotics. These submarines, often built for the sole purpose of moving millions of dollars' worth of drugs across seas, have become widespread in Latin America and the Atlantic.

Japan has stood firmly against terror and narcotics throughout the globe, with the Japanese government joining forces with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to combat terror in Mozambique with funding of US$6.68 million (¥1.04 billion).

The UNODC aims to partner with countries with strong borders to aid those struggling with narcotics-related border security threats. The Delegate of Pakistan to the UNODC stated that countries which have proved themselves in securing their borders can "bring infrastructure and collaborate on border security" to those that struggle to control narcotics at borders.

This includes collaborating on effective border technologies, such as employing X-ray scanning for trucks as compared to inspectors doing plain visual checks. Furthermore, more experienced border security officers from countries with strong border security can collaborate to help train effective personnel in other countries.

It cannot be understated that drugs and narcoterrorism pose a direct threat to society, with organised crime groups facilitating it and destabilising entire regions. We must stay committed to keeping narcotics and narcoterrorism from becoming a normal occurrence throughout the globe.

Bibliography

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