Organised Drug Trafficking Network in China and the Mechanism of Route Formation

• In Event: Drugs across borders: international research on drug trafficking networks

Abstract

Chinese organised drug-related crimes have received limited scholarly attention. To address this gap, this study endeavours to comprehensively map the organised drug trafficking network within China and elucidate the mechanisms behind the formation of trafficking routes across 41 major Chinese cities from 2012 to 2022. Through analysis of court records, the research generates a drug trafficking map using a network approach. The findings reveal distinct patterns of drug flow among the cities, highlighting a clear division of roles as origin, transit, and destination points within the network. Furthermore, the study identifies significant changes in the network's structure over the past decade. To deepen our understanding of the mechanisms driving route formation, this research incorporates Peter Reuter’s hypotheses on drug trafficking route generation by applying Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGMs) for analysis.

Author

• Shujing Shi, University of Cambridge