Responses to Question
Student 1
1) What is smuggling? What is smuggled and why is it smuggled? Who benefits from smuggling
and who is hurt by smuggling and how? Besides smuggling, what other border violations
threaten the facilitation of legitimate trade?
According to Mamazizi, and Rostami of the Department of Sociology, and Management of
Islamic Azad University, smuggling is considered the “transfer of goods without paying custom
duties and paying business interests (2016).” They also point out that smuggling of goods is split
up into two areas, illegal goods, and conditionally permitted goods. Each of these types of goods
are heavily regulated by the local government and may be completely banned. However, local
smugglers look to capitalize on these goods that are not able to make across border lines in a
conventional manner, and make them available to trusted consumers.
Smuggling is a selfish business in and of itself, because the business of smuggling only benefits
the smuggler more then it usually even benefits the consumer. The smuggler is able to take home
a larger profit that may be inflated due to the means of acquiring and transporting the goods, and
the absence of taxes and other import costs. The person buying from the smuggler will provide
him with cash that could have been used in general market that could support other areas of the
economy. Unfortunately these funds that are invested into the smugglers could turn into
supporting those other actors with criminal intent.
Smuggling in goods is facilitated by many different means to access the market that smugglers
desire. This can be anything from weak border security due to terrain or size of areas. There is
also the threat of organized groups buying off border agents that work with the smugglers for
profit. Along with various government issues with regards to support and funding. These are all
areas that threaten the means of security along borders and work in favor to propel smuggling
operations.
2) What is the globalization of organized crime and how serious is the threat?
Globalization of organized crime is evident through the use of terrorist’s organizations reaching
into criminal organizations for aid or utilizing their own channels modeling criminal
organizations of smuggling goods, money, and people throughout regions to fund their terrorism
efforts on the international level. The growing threat of organized crime has been known and
voiced throughout the past ten years. In President Obama’s strategy to counter transnational
crime, he identifies the globalization of these terrorist and criminal organizations continue
“destabilizing” the local small governments they operate around, and are able to make an impact
on the national security of the United States by their growing expansion.
-Devin
References
Mamazizi, S., & Rostami, Y. (2016). On the examination of reasons why border dwellers tend to
goods smuggling and its impacts on the non-accomplishment of economic development. World
Scientific News, 52, 93-105.
Novakoff, R. (2015). Transnational organized crime: An insidious threat to U.S. national security
interests. Prism : A Journal of the Center for Complex Operations, 5(4), 134-149. Retrieved from
https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy2.apus.edu/docview/1762303344?accountid=8289
Student 2
1.) What is smuggling? What is smuggled and why is it smuggled? Who benefits from
smuggling and who is hurt by smuggling and how? Besides smuggling, what other border
violations threaten the facilitation of legitimate trade?
Smuggling is the act of facilitating the transportation of anything illegal. This includes but is not
limited to, persons or objects, across an international border that violates that county’s laws. This
can be accomplished through deception through the use of fraudulent documents and/or evading
that countries border security entry points.
Smuggling can come in many different forms. I will break down the different types of thigs or
objects smuggled. One is the smuggling of humans, also known as human trafficking. Human
trafficking is the illegal transport of a person(s) across the border for the use of sexual slavery
unlawful entry in order to avoid traditional Customs procedures. Another form of smuggle is to
bring weapons across the border, either to other countries or even for illegal use inside the
United States. The last one I will mention is drugs. This comes in many forms, but the most wellknown would be cocaine and marijuana.
All forms of smuggling can harm our economy, because things are coming and going without the
proper taxes being paid and with all the illegal and unlawful things happening at the border,
make the reins tighten, which causes more strict policies and one person or group ruining it for
everyone else.
2. What is the globalization of organized crime and how serious is the threat?
The globalization of organized crime is a serious threat. Organized crime has diversified, gone
global and reached macro-economic proportions: illicit goods are sourced from one continent,
trafficked across another, and marketed in a third. Mafias are today truly a transnational problem:
a threat to security, especially in poor and conflict-ridden countries. Crime is fueling corruption,
infiltrating business and politics, and hindering development.
Casey
References
Mamazizi, S., & Rostami, Y. (2016). On the examination of reasons why border dwellers tend to
goods smuggling and its impacts on the non-accomplishment of economic development. World
Scientific News, 52, 93-105.
Ortiz, L. V. (2016). Cross-border mobility and clandestine practices: Scenarios of violence in the
Mexico-United States border 1. Human Organization, 75 (3), 269-278.
Roberts, B., Hanson, G., Cornwell, D., & Borger, S. (2010). An analysis of migrant smuggling
costs along the southwest border. Office of Immigration Statistics, Department of Homeland
Security, Tech. Rep.
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