Drug Smuggling

The act of covertly transporting a controlled substance across an international border or through a checkpoint, undetected by customs or law enforcement, generally treated in law enforcement and criminological literature as distinct from the broader offense of drug trafficking in that smuggling describes specifically the concealment and movement of the substance across a frontier, while trafficking encompasses the wider chain of production, distribution and sale. Concealment methods documented by agencies including the United States Drug Enforcement Administration and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime range from body-carrying, known as being a drug mule, to concealment within vehicles, cargo containers and consumer goods, and, along major maritime routes, the use of go-fast boats and semi-submersible vessels. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime documents drug smuggling routes as a central organizing concept in its World Drug Report, tracking cocaine moved from South America toward North American and European markets and heroin moved from Afghanistan along established overland and maritime corridors.