Geography like a tool for monitoring of illegal activities: Case of chemical substances used in processes of extraction and processing cocaine

Abstract

Chemicals substances are the engine of industrial development in Colombia. However, although there are no illicit drugs without chemicals, controls to minimize the risk of diversion to illicit activities should be designed in such a way that the licit industry remains clean, creating more efficient and comprehensive control mechanisms in drug policy.

To achieve such purpose, an information model was designed through the use of Geographic Information Systems to support the processes of monitoring and controlling the chemical substances used in the extraction and transformation processes of cocaine. This model allows integrating atomized data of illegal activities which, from a traditional perspective, do not have a representation in the territory to turn them into useful geographical information for the decision making in the fight against drugs.

A database was created from different sources (Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Justice and Law, Tax and Customs Office and UNODC), which provided data on the chemical substances used when processing of cocaine hydrochloride (imports, exports, seizures, companies that use the Certificate of Lack of Reporting for Traffic in Narcotics, and drug supply); these variables were integrated in municipal and departmental scales to develop a geographic viewer that allows a complete look to the distribution and dynamics of the variables mentioned during the period 2010-2014. This information has been integrated into the official window of the Observatory of Drugs from Colombia.