Smuggling of Drugs by Body Packing: Evidence from Chinese Sentencing Documents

• In Event: 1552 - Section on Asia and Asian America Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 min): Table 2: Trafficking

Abstract

As a means of drug transportation, body packing was initially spotted in the area of Yunnan province that shares a border with the Golden Triangle, and since then, it has been booming in China. Largely due to data scarcity, however, the scope and nature of such criminal activity is not well understood. This study provides a new angle in the analysis of body packing by digitizing and analyzing court sentencing documents in China during 2006-2016.
Methodology
This study utilizes network analysis to identify structure of drug trafficking routes involving body packing in China, and aims to provide a comprehensive examination of body packing activity of drugs, including the pattern of geographic routes and the characteristics of body packers as well as the effects of legal and extra-legal factors on the length of sentence for body packers.
Results
We identified three types of trafficking routes involving body packing: intra-provincial, inter-provincial, and international. Our results showed that heroin and methamphetamine are the two primary drugs trafficked by drug mules. Network analysis revealed that among body packing routes, there are three major hubs that serve as the primary origin for the trafficking routes—Yunnan, Sichuan, and Myanmar, and one authority—Guangdong which gets heroin from outside of China, in spite of being the infamous center of synthetic drug manufacturing. Consistent with previous studies, our research also demonstrated that heavier punishments are given to cases that involve a larger quantity of drugs and repeat offenders. Offenders who fall into special groups, such as pregnant/lactating women, the disabled, or minors, receive lenient sentence. In addition, our analysis further revealed that the reason behind longer sentences for those who confessed as opposed to those who did not, is possibly due to the concentration of imprisonment values at fifteen years, as many of the confessed drug mules are sentenced to the maximum fixed term of imprisonment.
Conclusion
By narrowing the gap in knowledge of body packing, our analysis provides evidence-based strategies for fighting against body packing, specifically geographical patterns and profile of drug mules.

Author

• Tianji Cai