AIJC 2018

In some African, Asian and Central American countries, smuggling services  are freely touted on the streets, luring customers the way agents at popular tourist destinations sell sailing or snorkeling excursions. The hawkers then drop potential customers off with the salesmen, who pitch them a smuggling route in a backroom somewhere.
The increased criminality and corruption in the human-smuggling business has blurred the line between voluntary smuggling and involuntary trafficking.
But smugglers have become more of a necessity as the trip to Europe or the United States has become more dangerous. That’s not just because of law enforcement but organized crime syndicates that have come to view migrants as a diversified income source to augment their earnings from drug trafficking, theft and protection rackets.
This session offers tips, techniques and suggested sources for investigating the shadowy syndicates behind smuggling networks.