1.
Black market
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Parties engaging in the production or distribution of prohibited goods and services are members of the illegal economy. Examples include the trade, prostitution, illegal currency transactions. Violations of the tax code involving income tax evasion constitutes membership in the unreported economy, because tax evasion or participation in a black market activity is illegal, participants will attempt to hide their behavior from the government or regulatory authority. Cash usage is the medium of exchange in illegal transactions since cash usage does not leave a footprint. Common motives for operating in markets are to trade contraband, avoid taxes and regulations. Typically the totality of such activity is referred to with the article as a complement to the official economies, by market for such goods and services. Black money is the proceeds of a transaction, on which income and other taxes have not been paid. Because of the nature of the black economy it is not possible to determine its size. There is no single underground economy, there are many and these underground economies are omnipresent, existing in market oriented as well as in centrally planned nations, be they developed or developing. Different types of activities are distinguished according to the particular institutional rules that they violate. Illegal economy participants engage in the production and distribution of prohibited goods and services, such as trafficking, arms trafficking. The unreported economy consists of economic activities that circumvent or evade the institutionally established fiscal rules as codified in the tax code. A summary measure of the economy is the amount of income that should be reported to the tax authority but is not so reported. A complementary measure of the economy is the tax gap. In the U. S. unreported income is estimated to be $2 trillion resulting in a tax gap of $450–$500 billion, the unrecorded economy consists of those economic activities that circumvent the institutional rules that define the reporting requirements of government statistical agencies. A summary measure of the economy is the amount of unrecorded income. Unrecorded income is a problem in transition countries that switched from a socialist accounting system to UN standard national accounting. New methods have been proposed for estimating the size of the unrecorded economy, but there is still little consensus concerning the size of the unreported economies of transition countries
2.
Prohibition of drugs
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While some drugs are illegal to possess, many governments regulate the manufacture, distribution, marketing, sale and use of certain drugs, for instance through a prescription system. For example, amphetamines may be legal to possess if a doctor has prescribed them, otherwise, only certain drugs are banned with a blanket prohibition against all possession or use. The most widely banned substances include psychoactive drugs, although blanket prohibition also extends to some steroids, many governments do not criminalize the possession of a limited quantity of certain drugs for personal use, while still prohibiting their sale or manufacture, or possession in large quantities. Some laws set a specific volume of a drug, above which is considered ipso jure to be evidence of trafficking or sale of the drug. Some Islamic countries prohibit the use of alcohol, many governments levy a sin tax on alcohol and tobacco products, and restrict alcohol and tobacco from being sold or gifted to a minor. Other common restrictions include bans on outdoor drinking and indoor smoking, in the early 20th Century, many countries had alcohol prohibition. These include The United States, Finland, Norway, Canada, Iceland, the cultivation, use, and trade of psychoactive and other drugs has occurred since ancient times. Concurrently, authorities have often restricted drug possession and trade for a variety of political, in the 20th century, the United States led a major renewed surge in drug prohibition called the War on Drugs. Todays War on Drugs is particularly motivated by the desire to prevent drug use, the prohibition on alcohol under Islamic Sharia law, which is usually attributed to passages in the Quran, dates back to the 7th century. Although Islamic law is interpreted as prohibiting all intoxicants, the ancient practice of hashish smoking has continued throughout the history of Islam. A major campaign against hashish-eating Sufis was conducted in Egypt in the 11th and 12th centuries resulting among other things in the burning of fields of cannabis. In the 14th century, the Islamic scholar Az-Zarkashi spoke of the permissibility of its use for medical purposes if it is established that it is beneficial. In the Ottoman Empire, Murad IV attempted to prohibit coffee drinking to Muslims as haraam, arguing that it was an intoxicant, the early association between coffeehouses and seditious political activities in England, led to the banning of such establishments in the mid-17th century. A number of Asian rulers had similarly enacted early prohibitions, many of which were later overturned by Western colonial powers during the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1360, for example, King Ramathibodi I, of Ayutthaya Kingdom, prohibited opium consumption, the prohibition lasted nearly 500 years until 1851, when King Rama IV allowed Chinese migrants to consume opium. While the Konbaung Dynasty prohibited all intoxicants and stimulants during the reign of King Bodawpaya, as the British colonized parts of Burma from 1852 they overturned local prohibitions and established opium monopolies selling Indian produced opium. In late Qing Imperial China, opium imported by the British East India Company was consumed by all classes in Southern China. Between 1821 and 1837, imports of the drug increased fivefold, the drain of silver to India and widespread social problems that resulted from this consumption prompted the Chinese government to attempt to end the trade
3.
Drug
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A drug is any substance that, when inhaled, injected, smoked, consumed, absorbed via a patch on the skin, or dissolved under the tongue, causes a physiological change in the body. In pharmacology, a drug, also called a medication or medicine, is a chemical substance used to treat, cure, prevent. Traditionally drugs were obtained through extraction from plants, but more recently also by organic synthesis. Pharmaceutical drugs may be used for a duration, or on a regular basis for chronic disorders. Another major classification system is the Biopharmaceutics Classification System and this classifies drugs according to their solubility and permeability or absorption properties. Psychoactive drugs are chemical substances that affect the function of the nervous system, altering perception. They include alcohol, a depressant, and the nicotine and caffeine. These three are the most widely consumed psychoactive drugs worldwide and are also considered recreational drugs since they are used for rather than medicinal purposes. Other recreational drugs include hallucinogens, opiates and amphetamines and some of these are used in spiritual or religious settings. Some drugs can cause addiction and all drugs can have side effects, excessive use of stimulants can promote stimulant psychosis. Many recreational drugs are illicit and international such as the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs exist for the purpose of their prohibition. The transitive verb to drug arose later and invokes the psychoactive rather than properties of a substance. A medication or medicine is a drug taken to cure or ameliorate any symptoms of an illness or medical condition, the use may also be as preventive medicine that has future benefits but does not treat any existing or pre-existing diseases or symptoms. In the United Kingdom, behind-the-counter medicines are called pharmacy medicines which can only be sold in registered pharmacies and these medications are designated by the letter P on the label. The range of medicines available without a prescription varies from country to country, medications are typically produced by pharmaceutical companies and are often patented to give the developer exclusive rights to produce them. Those that are not patented are called generic drugs since they can be produced by other companies without restrictions or licenses from the patent holder, pharmaceutical drugs are usually categorised into drug classes. A group of drugs will share a chemical structure, or have the same mechanism of action. Another major classification system is the Biopharmaceutics Classification System and this groups drugs according to their solubility and permeability or absorption properties
4.
History of opium in China
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The history of opium in China began with the use of opium for medicinal purposes during the 7th century. In the 17th century the practice of mixing opium with tobacco for smoking spread from Southeast Asia, the decade of the 1830s witnessed a rapid rise in opium trade, and by 1838, just before the First Opium War, it had climbed to 40,000 chests. The rise continued on after the Treaty of Nanking that concluded the war, by 1858 annual imports had risen to 70,000 chests, approximately equivalent to global production of opium for the decade surrounding the year 2000. By the late 19th century Chinese domestic opium production challenged and then surpassed imports, the 20th century opened with effective campaigns to suppress domestic farming, and in 1907 the British government signed a treaty to eliminate imports. The fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911, however, led to a resurgence in domestic production, after 1949 the respective governments of the Peoples Republic of China on the mainland and of the Republic of China on Taiwan successfully suppressed the widespread growth and use of opium. Historical accounts suggest that opium first arrived in China during the Tang dynasty as part of the merchandise of Arab traders and it enhances the art of alchemists, sex and court ladies. Frequent use helps to cure the chronic diarrhea that causes the loss of energy and its price equals that of gold. Ming rulers obtained opium via the system, when it was known as wuxiang or black spice. First listed as a commodity in 1589, opium remained legal until the early Qing dynasty. Following the Battle of Plassey in 1757, Britain annexed the Bengal Presidency to its empire, after the British gained control, the former monopoly on opium production held by the Mughal emperors passed to the East India Company under the The East India Company Act,1793. However the EIC was £28 million in debt as a result of the Indian war and the demand for Chinese tea in the UK market. To redress the imbalance, the EIC began auctions of opium in Calcutta, British merchants carrying no opium would buy tea in Canton on credit, and balance their debts by selling opium at auction in Calcutta. From there, the opium would reach the Chinese coast hidden aboard British ships, supplies of the drug arrived in chests in the form of small balls having originated in the Indian provinces of Bengal and Madras. In 1797 the EIC further tightened its grip on the trade by enforcing direct trade between opium farmers and the British, and ending the role of Bengali purchasing agents. British exports of opium to China grew from an estimated 15 long tons in 1730 to 75 long tons in 1773 shipped in two thousand chests. The Qing dynasty Jiaqing Emperor issued a decree banning imports of the drug in 1799. By 1804 the trade deficit with China had turned into a surplus, meanwhile, Americans entered the opium trade with less expensive but inferior Turkish opium and by 1810 had around 10% of the trade in Canton. In the same year the emperor issued an imperial edict
5.
Western world
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The Western world or the West is a term usually referring to different nations, depending on the context, most often including at least part of Europe. There are many accepted definitions about what they all have in common, the Western world is also known as the Occident. The concept of the Western part of the earth has its roots in Greco-Roman civilization in Europe, before the Cold War era, the traditional Western viewpoint identified Western Civilization with the Western Christian countries and culture. Its political usage was changed by the antagonism during the Cold War in the mid-to-late 20th Century. The term originally had a literal geographic meaning, Western culture was influenced by many older great civilizations of the ancient Near East, such as Phoenicia, Minoan Crete, Sumer, Babylonia, and also Ancient Egypt. It originated in the Mediterranean basin and its vicinity, Greece, over time, their associated empires grew first to the east and west to include the rest of Mediterranean and Black Sea coastal areas, conquering and absorbing. Later, they expanded to the north of the Mediterranean Sea to include Western, Central, numerous times, this expansion was accompanied by Christian missionaries, who attempted to proselytize Christianity. There is debate among some as to whether Latin America is in a category of its own, specifically, Western culture may imply, a Biblical Christian cultural influence in spiritual thinking, customs and either ethic or moral traditions, around the Post-Classical Era and after. European cultural influences concerning artistic, musical, folkloric, ethic and oral traditions, the concept of Western culture is generally linked to the classical definition of the Western world. In this definition, Western culture is the set of literary, scientific, political, artistic, much of this set of traditions and knowledge is collected in the Western canon. The term has come to apply to countries whose history is marked by European immigration or settlement, such as the Americas, and Oceania. The geopolitical divisions in Europe that created a concept of East and West originated in the Roman Empire, Roman Catholic Western and Central Europe, as such, maintained a distinct identity particularly as it began to redevelop during the Renaissance. Even following the Protestant Reformation, Protestant Europe continued to see itself as more tied to Roman Catholic Europe than other parts of the civilized world. Use of the term West as a cultural and geopolitical term developed over the course of the Age of Exploration as Europe spread its culture to other parts of the world. Additionally, closer contacts between the West and Asia and other parts of the world in recent times have continued to cloud the use, herodotus considered the Persian Wars of the early 5th century BC a conflict of Europa versus Asia. The terms West and East were not used by any Greek author to describe that conflict, the Great Schism and the Fourth Crusade confirmed this deviation. The Renaissance in the West emerged partly from currents within the Roman Empire, Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew from a city-state founded on the Italian Peninsula about the 9th century BC to a massive empire straddling the Mediterranean Sea. In its 12-century existence, Roman civilization shifted from a monarchy, to a republic, nonetheless, despite its great legacy, a number of factors led to the eventual decline of the Roman Empire
6.
Illegal drug trade in China
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The illegal drug trade in China is influenced by factors such as history, location, size, population, and current economic conditions. Chinas status in drug trafficking has changed significantly since the 1980s, as trade with Southeast Asia and elsewhere increased, so did the flow of illicit drugs and precursor chemicals from, into, and through China. China is a source of precursor chemicals necessary for the production of cocaine, heroin, MDMA and crystal methamphetamine. China produces over 100,000 metric tons of acetic anhydride each year, reports indicate that acetic anhydride is diverted from China to morphine and heroin refineries in the Golden Triangle. China is developing a significant MDMA production, trafficking, and consumption problem, a majority of the Southeast Asian heroin that enters China from Burma transits southern China to various international markets by maritime transport. Drug traffickers take advantage of expanding facilities in coastal cities, such as Qingdao, Shanghai, Tianjin. Southwest Asian heroin represents as much as 22 percent of the heroin entering northwest China, Chinese authorities believe that these trends will increase and they attribute these increases to the continuing development of the infrastructure and economy in China. China is being forced to develop a complex strategy that includes prevention, education, eradication, interdiction. Government authorities claimed that cannabis could cause nervous dysfunction and madness. Such official attitudes must have reflected popular beliefs, since very little evidence exists concerning the use of cannabis even in the large coastal metropoles. In Shanghai not a case of cannabis use was discovered during the 1930s. With the exception of the Uyghurs, the perception of the smell of smoked cannabis as foul also impeded its spread. On the other hand, the extraction of oil was widespread in Shanxi. Although most of it appears to have used for lighting and to lubricate cart wheels. Cannabis grows naturally throughout southwestern China, and is cultivated in some areas of China for use in commercial rope manufacturing. Most of the cultivation of cannabis as a drug in China appears in Xinjiang. In 2002, approximately 1.3 metric tons of cannabis were seized in China, the Chinese Government owns and operates ephedra farms, where ephedra grass is cultivated under strict government control. The active alkaloids, pseudoephedrine and ephedrine, are extracted from the plant material
7.
Opium
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Opium is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy. The latex also contains the closely related opiates codeine and thebaine, the word meconium historically referred to related, weaker preparations made from other parts of the opium poppy or different species of poppies. The production of opium has not changed since ancient times, through selective breeding of the Papaver somniferum plant, the content of the phenanthrene alkaloids morphine, codeine, and to a lesser extent thebaine has been greatly increased. For the illegal trade, the morphine is extracted from the opium. It is then converted to heroin which is two to four times as potent, and increases the value by two to four times, the reduced weight and bulk make it easier to smuggle. Evidence from ancient Greece indicate that opium was consumed in several ways, including inhalation of vapors, suppositories, medical poultices, Opium is mentioned in the most important medical texts of the ancient world, including the Ebers Papyrus and the writings of Dioscorides, Galen, and Avicenna. Widespread medical use of unprocessed opium continued through the American Civil War before giving way to morphine and its successors, Opium has been actively collected since prehistoric times. Though western scholars typically estimate this to be around 1500 BCE, Indian scholars maintain that the verses and the history contained in them have been orally transmitted thousands of years before. A common name for males in Afghanistan is Redey, which in Pashto means poppy and this term may be derived from the Sanskrit words rddhi and hrdya, which mean magical, a type of medicinal plant, and heart-pleasing, respectively. The upper Asian belt of Afghanistan, Pakistan, northern India, numerous finds of P. somniferum or P. setigerum from Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements have also been reported. The first known cultivation of poppies was in Mesopotamia, approximately 3400 BCE, by Sumerians, who called the plant hul gil. Tablets found at Nippur, a Sumerian spiritual center south of Baghdad, described the collection of juice in the morning. Opium production continued under the Babylonians and Egyptians, Opium was used with poison hemlock to put people quickly and painlessly to death, but it was also used in medicine. The Ebers Papyrus, c. 1500 BCE, describes a way to stop a child using grains of the poppy plant strained to a pulp. Spongia somnifera, sponges soaked in opium, were used during surgery, the Egyptians cultivated opium thebaicum in famous poppy fields around 1300 BCE. Opium was traded from Egypt by the Phoenicians and Minoans to destinations around the Mediterranean Sea, including Greece, Carthage, and Europe. By 1100 BCE, opium was cultivated on Cyprus, where surgical-quality knives were used to score the poppy pods, and opium was cultivated, traded, Opium was also mentioned after the Persian conquest of Assyria and Babylonian lands in the 6th century BCE. From the earliest finds, opium has appeared to have ritual significance, and anthropologists have speculated ancient priests may have used the drug as a proof of healing power
8.
First Opium War
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European silver flowed into China when the Canton System, instituted in the mid-18th century, confined the sea trade to Canton and to the Chinese merchants of the Thirteen Factories. The British East India Company had a monopoly of British trade. The British East India Company began to auction opium grown on its plantations in India to independent foreign traders in exchange for silver, the opium was then transported to the Chinese coast and sold to local middlemen who retailed the drug inside China. This reverse flow of silver and the numbers of opium addicts alarmed Chinese officials. In 1839, the Daoguang Emperor, rejecting proposals to legalise and tax opium, Lin confiscated around 20,000 chests of opium without offering compensation, blockaded trade, and confined foreign merchants to their quarters. The failure of the treaty to satisfy British goals of improved trade, in China, the war is considered the beginning of modern Chinese history. Direct maritime trade between Europe and China began in 1557 when the Portuguese leased an outpost at Macau, after the Spanish conquest of the Philippines, the exchange of goods between China and western Europe accelerated dramatically. From 1565, the annual Manila Galleon brought in enormous amounts of silver to the Asian trade network, from 1700–1842, Guangzhou came to dominate maritime trade with China, and this period became known as the Canton System. Official British trade was conducted through the auspices of the British East India Company, the British East India Company gradually came to dominate Sino-European trade from its position in India. From the inception of the Canton System in 1757, trade in goods from China was extremely lucrative for European, however, foreign traders were only permitted to do business through a body of Chinese merchants known as the Cohong and were restricted to Canton. Foreigners could only live in one of the Thirteen Factories, near Shameen Island, while silk and porcelain drove trade through their popularity in the west, an insatiable demand for tea existed in Britain. However, only silver was accepted in payment by China, which resulted in a trade deficit. From the mid-17th century around 28 million kilograms of silver were received by China, principally from European powers, Britain had been on the gold standard since the 18th century, so it had to purchase silver from continental Europe and Mexico to supply the Chinese appetite for silver. Attempts by a British embassy, a Dutch mission, Russias Golovkin in 1805, by 1817, the British realized they could reduce the trade deficit as well as turn the Indian colony profitable by counter-trading in narcotic Indian opium. Opium was produced in traditionally cotton-growing regions of India under British East India Company monopoly, both areas had been hard hit by the introduction of factory-produced cotton cloth, which used cotton grown in Egypt. The opium was auctioned in Calcutta on the condition that it be shipped by British traders to China, Opium as a medicinal ingredient was documented in texts as early as the Tang dynasty but its recreational use was limited and there were laws against its abuse. British sales of opium began in 1781, and sales increased fivefold between 1821 and 1837, by 1820, just when the Qing treasury needed to finance the suppression of rebellions, the flow of silver had reversed, Chinese merchants were now exporting it to pay for opium. The imperial court debated whether or how to end the opium trade, Napier was instructed to obey Chinese regulations, communicate directly with Chinese authorities, superintend trade pertaining to the contraband trade of opium, and to survey Chinas coastline
9.
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was established as a sovereign state on 1 January 1801 by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. The growing desire for an Irish Republic led to the Irish War of Independence, Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom, and the state was consequently renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Britain financed the European coalition that defeated France in 1815 in the Napoleonic Wars, the British Empire thereby became the foremost world power for the next century. The Crimean War with Russia and the Boer wars were relatively small operations in a largely peaceful century, rapid industrialisation that began in the decades prior to the states formation continued up until the mid-19th century. A devastating famine, exacerbated by government inaction in the century, led to demographic collapse in much of Ireland. It was an era of economic modernization and growth of industry, trade and finance. Outward migration was heavy to the colonies and to the United States. Britain also built up a large British Empire in Africa and Asia, India, by far the most important possession, saw a short-lived revolt in 1857. In foreign policy Britain favoured free trade, which enabled its financiers and merchants to operate successfully in many otherwise independent countries, as in South America. Britain formed no permanent military alliances until the early 20th century, when it began to cooperate with Japan, France and Russia, and moved closer to the United States. A brief period of limited independence for Ireland came to an end following the Irish Rebellion of 1798, the British governments fear of an independent Ireland siding against them with the French resulted in the decision to unite the two countries. This was brought about by legislation in the parliaments of both kingdoms and came into effect on 1 January 1801, however, King George III was bitterly opposed to any such Emancipation and succeeded in defeating his governments attempts to introduce it. When the Treaty of Amiens ended the war, Britain agreed to return most of the territories it had seized, in May 1803, war was declared again. In 1806, Napoleon issued the series of Berlin Decrees, which brought into effect the Continental System and this policy aimed to eliminate the threat from the British by closing French-controlled territory to foreign trade. Frances population and agricultural capacity far outstripped that of the British Isles, Napoleon expected that cutting Britain off from the European mainland would end its economic hegemony. The Spanish uprising in 1808 at last permitted Britain to gain a foothold on the Continent, after Napoleons surrender and exile to the island of Elba, peace appeared to have returned. The Allies united and the armies of Wellington and Blucher defeated Napoleon once, simultaneous with the Napoleonic Wars, trade disputes, arming hostile Indians and British impressment of American sailors led to the War of 1812 with the United States. The war was little noticed in Britain, which could devote few resources to the conflict until the fall of Napoleon in 1814, American frigates inflicted a series of defeats on the Royal Navy, which was short on manpower due to the conflict in Europe
10.
Qing-dynasty
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It was preceded by the Ming dynasty and succeeded by the Republic of China. The Qing multi-cultural empire lasted almost three centuries and formed the base for the modern Chinese state. The dynasty was founded by the Jurchen Aisin Gioro clan in Manchuria, in the late sixteenth century, Nurhaci, originally a Ming vassal, began organizing Banners, military-social units that included Jurchen, Han Chinese, and Mongol elements. Nurhaci formed the Jurchen clans into an entity, which he renamed as the Manchus. By 1636, his son Hong Taiji began driving Ming forces out of Liaodong and declared a new dynasty, in 1644, peasant rebels led by Li Zicheng conquered the Ming capital, Beijing. The Ten Great Campaigns of the Qianlong Emperor from the 1750s to the 1790s extended Qing control into Central Asia, the early rulers maintained their Manchu ways, and while their title was Emperor, they used khan to the Mongols and they were patrons of Tibetan Buddhism. They governed using Confucian styles and institutions of government and retained the imperial examinations to recruit Han Chinese to work under or in parallel with Manchus. They also adapted the ideals of the system in dealing with neighboring territories. The Qianlong reign saw the apogee and initial decline in prosperity. The population rose to some 400 million, but taxes and government revenues were fixed at a low rate, corruption set in, rebels tested government legitimacy, and ruling elites did not change their mindsets in the face of changes in the world system. Following the Opium War, European powers imposed unequal treaties, free trade, the Taiping Rebellion and the Dungan Revolt in Central Asia led to the deaths of some 20 million people, most of them due to famines caused by war. In spite of disasters, in the Tongzhi Restoration of the 1860s, Han Chinese elites rallied to the defense of the Confucian order. The initial gains in the Self-Strengthening Movement were destroyed in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1895, in which the Qing lost its influence over Korea, New Armies were organized, but the ambitious Hundred Days Reform of 1898 was turned back by Empress Dowager Cixi, a conservative leader. Sun Yat-sen and other revolutionaries competed with reformist monarchists such as Kang Youwei, after the deaths of Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor in 1908, the hardline Manchu court alienated reformers and local elites alike. The Wuchang Uprising on October 11,1911, led to the Xinhai Revolution, General Yuan Shikai negotiated the abdication of Puyi, the last emperor, on February 12,1912. Nurhaci declared himself the Bright Khan of the Later Jin state in both of the 12–13th century Jurchen Jin dynasty and of his Aisin Gioro clan. His son Hong Taiji renamed the dynasty Great Qing in 1636, there are competing explanations on the meaning of Qīng. The character Qīng is composed of water and azure, both associated with the water element and this association would justify the Qing conquest as defeat of fire by water
11.
Second Opium War
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The terms Second War and Arrow War are both used in literature. The Arrow War refers to the name of a vessel which became the point of the conflict. The war followed on from the First Opium War, the failure of the treaty to satisfy British goals of improved trade and diplomatic relations led to the Second Opium War. In China, the war is considered to be the beginning of modern Chinese history, the 1850s saw the rapid growth of Western imperialism. Some of the goals of the western powers were the expansion of their overseas markets. The French Treaty of Huangpu and the American Wangxia Treaty both contained clauses allowing renegotiation of the treaties after 12 years of being in effect. In an effort to expand their privileges in China, Britain demanded the Qing authorities renegotiate the Treaty of Nanking, citing their most favoured nation status. In October 1856, Chinese marines in Canton seized a ship called the Arrow on suspicion of piracy. The Arrow had previously used by pirates, captured by the Chinese government. It was then registered as a British ship and still flew the British flag at the time of its detainment and its captain, Thomas Kennedy, who was aboard a nearby vessel at the time, reported seeing Chinese marines pull the British flag down from the ship. Ye released nine of the members, but refused to release the last three. On 23 October the British destroyed four barrier forts, on 25 October a demand was made for the British to be allowed to enter the city. Next day the British started to bombard the city, firing one shot every 10 minutes, Ye Mingchen issued a bounty on every British head taken. On 29 October a hole was blasted in the city walls and troops entered, with a flag of the United States of America being planted by James Keenan on the walls, losses were 3 killed and 12 wounded. Negotiations failed and the city was bombarded, on 6 November 23 war junks attacked and were destroyed. There were pauses for talks, with the British bombarding at intervals, fires were caused, then on 5 January 1857, the British government lost a Parliamentary vote regarding the Arrow incident and what had taken place at Canton to the end of the year on 3 March 1857. Then there was an election in April 1857 which increased the government majority. In April, the government asked the United States of America and Russia if they were interested in alliances, in May 1857, the Indian Mutiny became serious
12.
Second French Empire
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The Second French Empire was the Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870, between the Second Republic and the Third Republic, in France. The structure of the French government during the Second Empire was little changed from the First, but Emperor Napoleon III stressed his own imperial role as the foundation of the government. He had so often, while in prison or in exile and his answer was to organize a system of government based on the principles of the Napoleonic Idea. This meant that the emperor, the elect of the people as the representative of the democracy, ruled supreme. He himself drew power and legitimacy from his role as representative of the great Napoleon I of France, the anti-parliamentary French Constitution of 1852 instituted by Napoleon III on 14 January 1852, was largely a repetition of that of 1848. All executive power was entrusted to the emperor, who, as head of state, was responsible to the people. The people of the Empire, lacking democratic rights, were to rely on the benevolence of the rather than on the benevolence of politicians. He was to nominate the members of the council of state, whose duty it was to prepare the laws, and of the senate, a body permanently established as a constituent part of the empire. One innovation was made, namely, that the Legislative Body was elected by universal suffrage and this new political change was rapidly followed by the same consequence as had attended that of Brumaire. The press was subjected to a system of cautionnements and avertissements, in order to counteract the opposition of individuals, a surveillance of suspects was instituted. In the same way public instruction was strictly supervised, the teaching of philosophy was suppressed in the lycées, for seven years France had no democratic life. The Empire governed by a series of plebiscites, up to 1857 the Opposition did not exist, from then till 1860 it was reduced to five members, Darimon, Émile Ollivier, Hénon, Jules Favre and Ernest Picard. On 2 December 1851 Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, who had been elected President of the Republic and he thus became sole ruler of France, and re-established universal suffrage, previously abolished by the Assembly. His decisions and the extension of his mandate for 10 years were popularly endorsed by a referendum later that month that attracted an implausible 92 percent support. A new constitution was enacted in January 1852 which made Louis-Napoléon president for 10 years, however, he was not content with merely being an authoritarian president. Almost as soon as he signed the new document into law, in response to officially-inspired requests for the return of the empire, the Senate scheduled a second referendum in November, which passed with 97 percent support. As with the December 1851 referendum, most of the yes votes were manufactured out of thin air, the empire was formally re-established on 2 December 1852, and the Prince-President became Napoléon III, Emperor of the French. The constitution concentrated so much power in his hands that the only changes were to replace the word president with the word emperor
13.
Treaty of Nanking
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The Treaty of Nanking or Nanjing was a peace treaty which ended the First Opium War between the United Kingdom and the Qing dynasty of China on 29 August 1842. It was the first of what the Chinese later called the unequal treaties on the ground that Britain had no obligations in return. In the wake of Chinas military defeat, with British warships poised to attack Nanking, representatives from the British, on 29 August 1842, British representative Sir Henry Pottinger and Qing representatives Qiying, Yilibu, and Niu Jian signed the treaty. It consisted of thirteen articles and was ratified by Queen Victoria, a copy of the treaty is kept by the British government while another copy is kept by the Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the National Palace Museum in Taipei. The fundamental purpose of the treaty was to change the framework of foreign trade imposed by the Canton System, under Article V, the treaty abolished the former monopoly of the Cohong and their Thirteen Factories in Canton. Four additional Treaty ports opened for foreign trade alongside Canton, Amoy, Foochowfoo, Ningpo and Shanghai, Britain also gained the right to send consuls to the Treaty Ports, which were given the right to communicate directly with local Chinese officials. The treaty stipulated that trade in the treaty ports should be subject to fixed tariffs, the Qing government undertook to release all British prisoners of war and to give a general amnesty to all Chinese subjects who had cooperated with the British during the war. British troops would remain in Gulangyu and Zhaobaoshan until the Qing government had paid reparations in full, in 1841, a rough outline for a treaty was sent for the guidance of Plenipotentiary Charles Elliot. It had a blank after the words the cession of the islands of, Pottinger sent this old draft treaty on shore, with the letter s struck out of islands and the words Hong Kong placed after it. Mr. Pottinger was later appointed the first governor of Hong Kong, in 1860, the colony was extended with the Kowloon peninsula and in 1898, the Second Convention of Peking further expanded the colony with the 99-year lease of the New Territories. On 3 October 1843, the parties concluded the supplementary Treaty of the Bogue at the Bocca Tigris outside Canton, nevertheless, the treaties of 1842–43 left several unsettled issues. In particular they did not resolve the status of the opium trade, the opium trade was later legalised in the Treaties of Tianjin, which China concluded after the Second Opium War. The Nanking Treaty ended the old Canton System and created a new framework for Chinas foreign relations, from the Chinese perspective, the most injurious terms were the fixed trade tariff, extraterritoriality, and the most favoured nation provisions. These were conceded partly out of expediency and partly because Qing officials did not yet know of international law or understand the long term consequences, although China regained tariff autonomy in the 1920s, extraterritoriality was not formally abolished until 1943
14.
Treaty of Tientsin
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The Treaty of Tientsin, now also known as the Treaty of Tianjin, is a collective name for several documents signed at Tianjin in June 1858. They ended the first phase of the Second Opium War, which had begun in 1856, the Qing, Russian, and Second French Empires, the United Kingdom, and the United States were the parties involved. They were ratified by the Emperor of China in the Convention of Peking in 1860, the Xianfeng Emperor authorized negotiations for the treaty on May 29,1858. The treaty with the British was signed less than a month later on June 25, great Britain, France, Russia, and the United States would have the right to station legations in Beijing. Eleven more Chinese ports would be opened for trade, including Newchwang, Tamsui, Hankou. The right of foreign vessels including warships to navigate freely on the Yangtze River, the right of foreigners to travel in the internal regions of China for the purpose of travel, trade or missionary activities. Religious liberty to all Christians in China, China was to pay an indemnity of 6 million taels of silver,2 for France,2 for Britain military expenses and 2 for compensating British merchants. Official letters and other documents exchanged between China and Britain are to be banned from referring to British Officials and Subjects of the Crown by the character 夷, the Treaties of Tientsin uses several words that have somewhat ambiguous meanings. For example, the words “settlement” and “concession” can often be confused, the term “settlement” refers to a parcel of land leased to a foreign power and is composed of both foreign and national peoples, locally elected foreigners govern them. The term “concession” refers to a lease of land to a foreign power where the foreign nation has complete control of the land. Following the pattern set by the powers of Europe, the United States took on a protectionist stance, built up its navy. The United States was one of the leading signing “treaty powers” in China, forcing open a total of 23 foreign concessions from the Chinese government
15.
U.S. state
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A U. S. state is a constituent political entity of the United States of America. There are 50 states, which are together in a union with each other. Each state holds administrative jurisdiction over a geographic territory. Due to the shared sovereignty between each state and the government, Americans are citizens of both the federal republic and of the state in which they reside. State citizenship and residency are flexible, and no government approval is required to move between states, except for persons covered by certain types of court orders. States range in population from just under 600,000 to over 39 million, four states use the term commonwealth rather than state in their full official names. States are divided into counties or county-equivalents, which may be assigned some local authority but are not sovereign. County or county-equivalent structure varies widely by state, State governments are allocated power by the people through their individual constitutions. All are grounded in principles, and each provides for a government. States possess a number of powers and rights under the United States Constitution, Constitution has been amended, and the interpretation and application of its provisions have changed. The general tendency has been toward centralization and incorporation, with the government playing a much larger role than it once did. There is a debate over states rights, which concerns the extent and nature of the states powers and sovereignty in relation to the federal government. States and their residents are represented in the federal Congress, a legislature consisting of the Senate. Each state is represented in the Senate by two senators, and is guaranteed at least one Representative in the House, members of the House are elected from single-member districts. Representatives are distributed among the states in proportion to the most recent constitutionally mandated decennial census, the Constitution grants to Congress the authority to admit new states into the Union. Since the establishment of the United States in 1776, the number of states has expanded from the original 13 to 50, alaska and Hawaii are the most recent states admitted, both in 1959. The Constitution is silent on the question of states have the power to secede from the Union. Shortly after the Civil War, the U. S. Supreme Court, in Texas v. White, as a result, while the governments of the various states share many similar features, they often vary greatly with regard to form and substance
16.
Harrison Act
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The Harrison Narcotics Tax Act was a United States federal law that regulated and taxed the production, importation, and distribution of opiates and coca products. The act was proposed by Representative Francis Burton Harrison of New York and was approved on December 17,1914, the courts interpreted this to mean that physicians could prescribe narcotics to patients in the course of normal treatment, but not for the treatment of addiction. The Harrison Anti-Narcotic legislation consisted of three U. S. House bills imposing restrictions on the availability and consumption of the psychoactive drug opium. U. S. House bills H. R.1966 and H. R.1967 passed conjointly with House bill H. R.6282 or the Opium and Coca Leaves Trade Restrictions Act. Although technically illegal for purposes of distribution and use, the distribution, sale and use of cocaine was legal for registered companies. Following the Spanish–American War the U. S. acquired the Philippines from Spain, at that time, opium addiction constituted a significant problem in the civilian population of the Philippines. Charles Henry Brent was an American Episcopal bishop who served as Missionary Bishop of the Philippines beginning in 1901 and he convened a Commission of Inquiry, known as the Brent Commission, for the purpose of examining alternatives to a licensing system for opium addicts. The Commission recommended that narcotics should be subject to international control, a second conference was held at The Hague in May 1911, and out of it came the first international drug control treaty, the International Opium Convention of 1912. In the 1800s opiates and cocaine were mostly unregulated drugs, in the 1890s the Sears & Roebuck catalogue, which was distributed to millions of Americans homes, offered a syringe and a small amount of cocaine for $1.50. On the other hand, as early as 1880 some states and localities had passed laws against smoking opium. At the beginning of the 20th century, cocaine began to be linked to crime, some newspapers later claimed cocaine use caused blacks to rape white women and was improving their pistol marksmanship. Chinese immigrants were blamed for importing the opium-smoking habit to the U. S, the 1903 blue-ribbon citizens panel, the Committee on the Acquirement of the Drug Habit, concluded, If the Chinaman cannot get along without his dope we can get along without him. Theodore Roosevelt appointed Dr. Hamilton Wright as the first Opium Commissioner of the United States in 1908, in 1909, Wright attended the International Opium Commission in Shanghai as the American delegates. He was accompanied by Charles Henry Brent, the Episcopal Bishop. On March 12,1911, Dr. Wright was quoted in as follows in an article in the New York Times, Of all the nations of the world, the United States consumes most habit-forming drugs per capita. Opium, the most pernicious drug known to humanity, is surrounded, in this country, Opium usage had begun to decline by 1914 after rising dramatically in the post Civil War Era, peaking at around one-half million pounds per year in 1896. As of 1911, an estimated one U. S. citizen in 400 was addicted to some form of opium, the opium addicts were mostly women who were prescribed and dispensed legal opiates by physicians and pharmacist for “female problems” or white men and Chinese at the Opium dens. Between two-thirds and three-quarters of these addicts were women, by 1914, forty-six states had regulations on cocaine and twenty-nine states had laws against opium, morphine, and heroin
17.
International Opium Convention
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The International Opium Convention, signed at The Hague on January 23,1912 during the First International Opium Conference, was the first international drug control treaty. It was registered in League of Nations Treaty Series on January 23,1922, the United States convened a 13-nation conference of the International Opium Commission in 1909 in Shanghai, China in response to increasing criticism of the opium trade. The treaty was signed by Germany, the United States, China, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Persia, Portugal, Russia, the Convention was implemented in 1915 by the United States, Netherlands, China, Honduras, and Norway. It went into force globally in 1919 when it was incorporated into the Treaty of Versailles, the primary objective of the convention was to introduce restrictions on exports as opposed to imposing prohibition or criminalising the use and cultivation of opium, coca, and cannabis. It introduced a statistical system to be supervised by a Permanent Central Opium Board. India and other countries objected to this language, citing social and religious customs, accordingly, this provision never made it into the final treaty. It also required Parties to exercise a control of such a nature as to prevent the illicit international traffic in Indian hemp. These restrictions still left considerable leeway for countries to allow production, internal trade, the Convention was superseded by the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. Legal issues of cannabis The cannabis problem, A note on the problem, the beginnings of international drug control, UN Chronicle, Summer,1998. International Opium Convention Signed at The Hague January 23,1912, Text of the 1912 convention Text of the 1925 convention Signatures and ratifications. The 1912 Hague International Opium Convention, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Opium Museum A primer on the UN Drug Control Conventions Transnational Institute, losing Ground, Drug Control and War in Afghanistan Transnational Institute
18.
Prohibition in the United States
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Prohibition in the United States was a nationwide constitutional ban on the production, importation, transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages that remained in place from 1920 to 1933. One result was that many communities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries introduced alcohol prohibition, Prohibition supporters, called drys, presented it as a victory for public morals and health. Promoted by the dry crusaders, a movement was led by rural Protestants and social Progressives in the Prohibition, Democratic and it gained a national grass roots base through the Womans Christian Temperance Union. After 1900 it was coordinated by the Anti-Saloon League, Prohibition was mandated in state after state, then finally nationwide under the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1920. Enabling legislation, known as the Volstead Act, set down the rules for enforcing the ban, for example, religious uses of wine were allowed. Private ownership and consumption of alcohol were not made illegal under federal law, in the 1920s the laws were widely disregarded, and tax revenues were lost. Opposition mobilized nationwide, and Prohibition ended with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment, some states continued statewide prohibition, marking one of the last stages of the Progressive Era. Anti-prohibitionists, known as wets, criticized the ban as an intrusion of mainly rural Protestant ideals on a central aspect of urban, immigrant. Some researchers contend that its failure is attributable more to a changing historical context than to characteristics of the law itself. Criticism remains that Prohibition led to unintended consequences such as the growth of urban crime organizations, as an experiment it lost supporters every year, and lost tax revenue that governments needed when the Great Depression began in 1929. The U. S. Senate proposed the Eighteenth Amendment on December 18,1917, upon being approved by a 36th state on January 16,1919, the amendment was ratified as a part of the Constitution. The Wartime Prohibition Act took effect June 30,1919, with July 1,1919, on October 28,1919, Congress passed the Volstead Act, the popular name for the National Prohibition Act, over President Woodrow Wilsons veto. The act established the definition of intoxicating liquors as well as penalties for producing them. Although the Volstead Act prohibited the sale of alcohol, the government lacked resources to enforce it. By the terms of the amendment, the country went dry one year later, by 1925, in New York City alone, there were anywhere from 30,000 to 100,000 speakeasy clubs. While Prohibition was successful in reducing the amount of liquor consumed, it stimulated the proliferation of rampant underground, organized, many were astonished and disenchanted with the rise of spectacular gangland crimes, when prohibition was supposed to reduce crime. Prohibition lost its advocates one by one, while the wet opposition talked of personal liberty, new tax revenues from legal beer and liquor, and the scourge of organized crime. On March 22,1933, President Franklin Roosevelt signed into law the Cullen–Harrison Act, legalizing beer with a content of 3. 2%
19.
American Mafia
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The American Mafia, also referred to as the Italian Mafia or the Italian-American Mafia, is a highly organized Italian-American criminal society. The organization is referred to by members as Cosa Nostra or La Cosa Nostra. The Mafia in the United States emerged in impoverished Italian immigrant neighborhoods in New Yorks East Harlem, Lower East Side and it has its roots in the Sicilian Mafia but is a separate organization in the United States. Today, the American Mafia cooperates in various activities with Italian organized crime groups, such as the Sicilian Mafia, Camorra in Naples. The most important unit of the American Mafia is that of a family, despite the name of family to describe the various units, they are not familial groupings. The Mafia is currently most active in the Northeastern U. S. especially in New York City, Philadelphia, New Jersey, and New England while also being active in Chicago and Florida. At the Mafias peak, there were at least 26 cities around the United States with Cosa Nostra families, with many more offshoots and associates in other cities. There are five main New York City Mafia families, known as the Five Families, the Gambino, Lucchese, Genovese, Bonanno, at its peak, the Mafia dominated organized crime in the U. S. Each crime family has its own territory and operates independently, while nationwide coordination is overseen by the Commission, the term Mafia was originally used in Italy by the media and law enforcement to describe criminal groups in Sicily. The origins of the term are debatable though most agree the term is derived from the word Maafir a term rooted in Arabic, like the Sicilian Mafia, the American Mafia did not use the term Mafia to describe itself. Neither group has a name and instead used the term cosa nostra when referring to themselves. Mafia properly refers to either the Sicilian or Italian-American Mafia, kennedys political team, referred to as the Irish Mafia. The press also coined the name National Crime Syndicate to refer to the network of U. S. organized crime, which includes the Jewish Mafia elements. The first published account of what became the Mafia in the United States dates to the spring of 1869, emigration from southern Italy to the Americas was primarily to Brazil and Argentina, and New Orleans had a heavy volume of port traffic to and from both locales. The Black Hand was a given to an extortion method used in Italian neighborhoods at the turn of the 20th century. It has been mistaken for the Mafia itself, which it is not. The Black Hand was a society, but there were many small Black Hand gangs. Black Hand extortion was often viewed as the activity of a single organization because Black Hand criminals in Italian communities throughout the United States used the methods of extortion
20.
Marijuana
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Cannabis, also known as marijuana among several other names, is a preparation of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or medicine. The main psychoactive part of cannabis is tetrahydrocannabinol, one of 483 known compounds in the plant, Cannabis can be used by smoking, vaporization, within food, or as an extract. Cannabis is often used for its mental and physical effects, such as a high or stoned feeling, a change in perception, euphoria. Short term side effects may include a decrease in short-term memory, dry mouth, impaired motor skills, red eyes, long term side effects may include addiction, decreased mental ability in those who started as teenagers, and behavioral problems in children whose mothers used cannabis during pregnancy. Onset of effects is within minutes when smoked and about 30 to 60 minutes when cooked and they last for between two and six hours. Cannabis is mostly used recreationally or as a medicinal drug and it may also be used for religious or spiritual purposes. In 2013, between 128 and 232 million people used cannabis, in 2015, 43% of Americans had used cannabis, which increased to 51% in 2016. About 12% have used it in the past year, and 7. 3% have used it in the past month and this makes it the most commonly used illegal drug both in the world and the United States. The earliest recorded uses date from the 3rd millennium BC, since the early 20th century, cannabis has been subject to legal restrictions. The possession, use, and sale of cannabis is illegal in most countries of the world, Medical cannabis refers to the physician-recommended use of cannabis, which is taking place in Canada, Belgium, Australia, the Netherlands, Spain, and 23 U. S. states. Cannabis use started to become popular in the US in the 1970s, support for legalization has increased in the United States and several US states have legalized recreational or medical use. Medical cannabis, or medical marijuana can refer to the use of cannabis and its cannabinoids to treat disease or improve symptoms, however, the use of cannabis as a medicine has not been rigorously scientifically tested, often due to production restrictions and other federal regulations. There is limited evidence suggesting cannabis can be used to reduce nausea and vomiting during chemotherapy, to improve appetite in people with HIV/AIDS and its use for other medical applications is insufficient for conclusions about safety or efficacy. Short-term use increases the risk of minor and major adverse effects. Common side effects include dizziness, feeling tired, vomiting, long-term effects of cannabis are not clear. Concerns include memory and cognition problems, risk of addiction, schizophrenia in people. Cannabis has psychoactive and physiological effects when consumed, at higher doses, effects can include altered body image, auditory and/or visual illusions, pseudohallucinations and ataxia from selective impairment of polysynaptic reflexes. In some cases, cannabis can lead to states such as depersonalization and derealization
21.
Cocaine
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Cocaine, also known as coke, is a strong stimulant mostly used as a recreational drug. It is commonly snorted, inhaled, or injected into the veins, mental effects may include loss of contact with reality, an intense feeling of happiness, or agitation. Physical symptoms may include a fast heart rate, sweating, high doses can result in very high blood pressure or body temperature. Effects begin within seconds to minutes of use and last between five and ninety minutes, Cocaine has a small number of accepted medical uses such as numbing and decreasing bleeding during nasal surgery. Cocaine is addictive due to its effect on the pathway in the brain. After a short period of use, there is a risk that dependence will occur. Its use also increases the risk of stroke, myocardial infarction, lung problems in those who smoke it, blood infections, Cocaine sold on the street is commonly mixed with local anesthetics, cornstarch, quinine, or sugar which can result in additional toxicity. Following repeated doses a person may have decreased ability to feel pleasure, Cocaine acts by inhibiting the reuptake of serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine. This results in concentrations of these three neurotransmitters in the brain. It can easily cross the barrier and may lead to the breakdown of the barrier. Cocaine is made from the leaves of the plant which are mostly grown in South America. In 2013,419 kilograms were produced legally and it is estimated that the illegal market for cocaine is 100 to 500 billion USD each year. With further processing crack cocaine can be produced from cocaine, after cannabis, cocaine is the most frequently used illegal drug globally. Between 14 and 21 million people use the drug each year, use is highest in North America followed by Europe and South America. Between one and three percent of people in the world have used cocaine at some point in their life. In 2013 cocaine use resulted in 4,300 deaths. The leaves of the plant have been used by Peruvians since ancient times. Cocaine was first isolated from the leaves in 1860, since 1961 the international Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs has required countries to make recreational use of cocaine a crime
22.
Organized crime
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Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist groups, are politically motivated. Sometimes criminal organizations force people to do business with them, such as when a gang extorts money from shopkeepers for so-called protection, gangs may become disciplined enough to be considered organized. A criminal organization or gang can also be referred to as a mafia, mob, or crime syndicate, European sociologists define the mafia as a type of organized crime group that specializes in the supply of extra-legal protection and quasi law enforcement. There is a tendency to distinguish organized crime from other forms of crime, such as crime, financial crimes, political crimes, war crime, state crimes. This distinction is not always apparent and academics continue to debate the matter, for example, in failed states that can no longer perform basic functions such as education, security, or governance, organised crime, governance and war sometimes complement each other. The term Oligarchy has been used to describe democratic countries whose political, social and economic institutions come under the control of a few families, in the United States, the Organized Crime Control Act defines organized crime as he unlawful activities of a highly organized, disciplined association. Criminal activity as a process is referred to as racketeering. In the UK, police estimate that organized crime involves up to 38,000 people operating in 6,000 various groups, bureaucratic/corporate organized crime groups are defined by the general rigidity of their internal structures. An estimate on youth street gangs nationwide provided by Hannigan, et al. marked an increase of 35% between 2002 and 2010, the term “street gang” is commonly used interchangeably with “youth gang, ” referring to neighborhood or street-based youth groups that meet “gang” criteria. Some reasons youth join gangs include to feel accepted, attain status, a sense of unity brings together many of the youth gangs that lack the family aspect at home. Zones of transition are deteriorating neighborhoods with shifting populations, in such areas, conflict between groups, fighting, turf wars, and theft promote solidarity and cohesion. Participation in gang-related events during adolescence perpetuate a pattern of maltreatment on their own children years later, klein like Spergel studied the effects on members of social workers’ interventions. More interventions actually lead to greater participation and solidarity and bonds between members. Downes and Rock on Parker’s analysis, strain theory applies, labeling theory, control theory and these may also be defined by age or peer group influences, and the permanence or consistency of their criminal activity. These groups also form their own identity or public representation which are recognizable by the community at large. Some studied street gangs involved in drug dealing - finding that their structure, members saw themselves as organized criminals, gangs were formal-rational organizations, Strong organizational structures, well defined roles and rules that guided members’ behavior. Also a specified and regular means of income, padilla agreed with the two above. However some have found these to be rather than well-defined and lacking persistent focus, there was relatively low cohesion, few shared goals
23.
Sinaloa Cartel
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The Sinaloa Cartel is an international drug trafficking, money laundering, and organized crime syndicate. Established during the mid-1980s, the Sinaloa Cartel is based primarily in the city of Culiacán, Sinaloa, with operations in the Mexican states of Baja California, Durango, Sonora, and Chihuahua. The cartel is also known as the Guzmán-Loera Organization and the Pacific Cartel, the cartel has also been called the Federation and the Blood Alliance. The Federation was partially splintered when the Beltrán-Leyva brothers broke apart from the Sinaloa Cartel, the Sinaloa Cartel is associated with the label Golden Triangle, which refers to the states of Sinaloa, Durango, and Chihuahua. The region is a producer of Mexican opium and marijuana. According to the National Drug Intelligence Center, within the U. S. the Sinaloa Cartel is primarily involved in the distribution of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana and MDMA. As of 2015, the Sinaloa Cartel is the most active drug cartel involved in smuggling drugs into the United States. Pedro Avilés Pérez was a drug lord in the Mexican state of Sinaloa in the late 1960s. He is considered to be the first generation of major Mexican drug smugglers of marijuana who marked the birth of large-scale Mexican drug trafficking and he also pioneered the use of aircraft to smuggle drugs to the United States. The Sinaloa Cartel used to be known as La Alianza de Sangre, when Héctor Luis Palma Salazar was arrested on 23 June 1995, by elements of the Mexican Army, his partner Joaquín Guzmán Loera took leadership of the cartel. Guzmán has two associates, Ismael Zambada García and Ignacio Coronel Villareal. Guzman and Zambada became Mexicos top drug kingpins in 2003, after the arrest of their rival Osiel Cardenas of the Gulf Cartel, another close associate, Javier Torres Félix, was arrested and extradited to the U. S. in December 2006. On 29 July 2010, Ignacio Coronel was killed in a shootout with the Mexican military in Zapopan, Guzman was captured on 22 February 2014 overnight by American and Mexican authorities. On July 11,2015, he escaped from the Federal Social Readaption Center No,1, a maximum-security prison in the State of Mexico, through a tunnel in his prison cell. Guzman resumed his command of the Sinaloa Cartel, but on January 8,2016, Guzman was captured again during a raid on a home in the city of Los Mochis, in Guzmans home state of Sinaloa. With the arrest of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, Ismael Zambada will most likely assume leadership of the Sinaloa Cartel. The Sinaloa Cartel has a presence in 17 of the 31 Mexican states, with important centers in Mexico City, Tepic, Toluca, Zacatecas, Guadalajara, and most of the state of Sinaloa. The cartel is primarily involved in the smuggling and distribution of Colombian cocaine, Mexican marijuana, methamphetamine and Mexican and it is believed that a group known as the Herrera Organization would transport multi-ton quantities of cocaine from South America to Guatemala on behalf of the Sinaloa Cartel
24.
'Ndrangheta
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The Ndràngheta is organized crime centered in Calabria, Italy. A US diplomat estimated that the narcotics trafficking, extortion. Since the 1950s, the organization has spread towards Northern Italy, according to a 2013 Threat Assessment on Italian Organised Crime of Europol, the Ndrangheta is among the richest and most powerful organised crime groups at a global level. In 1861 the prefect of Reggio Calabria already noticed the presence of so-called camorristi, since the 1880s, there is ample evidence of Ndrangheta-type groups in police reports and sentences by local courts. At the time they were often being referred to as the picciotteria, onorata società or camorra, an 1897 sentence from the court in Palmi mentioned a written code of rules found in the village of Seminara based on honour, secrecy, violence, solidarity and mutual assistance. In the folk culture surrounding Ndrangheta in Calabria, references to the Spanish Garduña often appear, aside from these references, however, there is nothing to substantiate a link between the two organizations. In many areas of Calabria the verb ndranghitiari, from the Greek verb andragathízesthai, the first time the word Ndrangheta was mentioned before a wider audience was by the Calabrian writer Corrado Alvaro in the Corriere della Sera in September 1955. Until 1975, the Ndrangheta restricted their Italian operations to Calabria, mainly involved in extortion and their involvement in cigarette contraband expanded their scope and contacts with the Sicilian Mafia and the neapolitan Camorra. With the arrival of public works in Calabria, skimming off public contracts became an important source of income. Disagreements over how to distribute the spoils led to the First Ndrangheta war killing 233 people, the prevailing factions began to kidnap rich people from northern Italy for ransom. It is believed that John Paul Getty III, kidnapped for ransom in 1973, was one of their victims, the Second Ndrangheta war raged from 1985 to 1991. The bloody six-year war between the Condello-Imerti-Serraino-Rosmini clans and the De Stefano-Tegano-Libri-Latella clans led to more than 600 deaths, the Sicilian Mafia contributed to the end of the conflict and probably suggested the subsequent set up of a superordinate body, called La Provincia, to avoid further infighting. In the 1990s, the organization started to invest in the international drug trade. Deputy President of the parliament of Calabria Francesco Fortugno was killed by the Ndrangheta on 16 October 2005 in Locri. Demonstrations against the organization then ensued, with young protesters carrying banderoles reading Ammazzateci tutti, the national government started a large-scale enforcement operation in Calabria and arrested numerous ndranghetisti including the murderers of Fortugno. The Ndrangheta has recently expanded its activities to Northern Italy, mainly to sell drugs, in May 2007 twenty members of Ndrangheta were arrested in Milan. On 30 August 2007, hundreds of police raided the town of San Luca, over 30 men and women, linked to the killing of six Italian men in Germany, were arrested. On 9 October 2012, following a long investigation by the central government the City Council of Reggio Calabria headed by Mayor Demetrio Arena was dissolved for alleged ties to the group
25.
Hashish
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Hash is an extracted cannabis product composed of compressed or purified preparations of stalked resin glands, called trichomes, from the plant. This all depends on the process and amount of solvent left over, the name comes from the Arabic word which means grass. It is believed that massive hashish production for international trade originated in Morocco during the 1960s, before the coming of the first hippies from the Hippie Hashish Trail, only small pieces of Lebanese hashish were found in Morocco. In 1596, Dutchman Jan Huyghen van Linschoten spent three pages on Bangue in his work documenting his journeys in the East. He particularly mentioned the Egyptian Hashish and he said, Bangue is likewise much used in Turkie and Egypt, and is made in three sorts, having also three names. In the 1800s, hashish was embraced in some European literary circles, baudelaire later wrote the 1860 book Les paradis artificiels, about the state of being under the influence of opium and hashish. At around the time, American author Fitz Hugh Ludlow wrote the 1857 book The Hasheesh Eater about his youthful experiences. Hashish can be consumed by oral ingestion or smoking, typically in a pipe, vaporizer or joints, Hashish is made from cannabinoid-rich glandular hairs known as trichomes, as well as varying amounts of cannabis flower and leaf fragments. The flowers of a female plant contain the most trichomes. Certain strains of cannabis are cultivated specifically for their ability to produce amounts of trichomes. The resin reservoirs of the trichomes, sometimes erroneously called pollen, are separated from the plant through various methods, mechanical separation methods use physical action to remove the trichomes from the plant, such as sieving through a screen by hand or in motorized tumblers. This technique is known as drysifting, the resulting powder, referred to as kief or drysift, is compressed with the aid of heat into blocks of hashish, if pure, the kief will become gooey and pliable. When a high level of pure THC is present, the end product will be almost transparent, ice-water separation is another mechanical method of isolating trichomes. Newer techniques have developed such as heat and pressure separations. Trichomes may break away from supporting stalks and leaves when plant material becomes brittle at low temperatures, the ice-water method requires ice, water, agitation, filtration bags with various-sized screens and plant material. With the ice-water extraction method the resin becomes hard and brittle and this allows large quantities of pure resins to be extracted in a very clean process without the use of solvents, making for a more purified hashish. Chemical separation methods use a solvent such as ethanol, butane or hexane to dissolve the lipophilic desirable resin. Remaining plant materials are filtered out of the solution and sent to the compost, the solvent is then evaporated, or boiled off leaving behind the desirable resins, called honey oil, hash oil, or just oil
26.
Capital punishment for drug trafficking
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In certain countries illegal importing, exporting, sale, or possession of drugs constitute capital offences that may result in the death penalty. According to a 2011 article by the Lawyers Collective, an NGO in India,32 countries impose capital punishment for offences involving narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances. A2012 report by Harm Reduction International documents the 33 countries and territories that retain death penalty for drug offences, methods of Execution by Country - NutzWorld. com Resources for references, Death Penalty | StoptheDrugWar. org. Ongoing compilation of articles about countries sentencing people to death for drug offenses
27.
Flogging
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Flagellation, flogging, whipping or lashing is the act of beating the human body with special implements such as whips, lashes, rods, switches, the cat o nine tails, the sjambok, etc. Typically, flogging is imposed on a subject as a punishment, however, it can also be submitted to willingly, or performed on oneself. The strokes are usually aimed at the back of a person. For a moderated subform of flagellation, described as bastinado, the soles of a persons feet are used as a target for beating. In some circumstances the word flogging is used loosely to any sort of corporal punishment. However, in British legal terminology, a distinction was drawn between flogging and whipping, in Britain these were both abolished in 1948. In Sparta, young men were flogged as a test of their masculinity, Jewish law limited flagellation to forty strokes, and in practice delivered thirty-nine, so as to avoid any possibility of breaking this law due to a miscount. In the Roman Empire, flagellation was often used as a prelude to crucifixion, whips with small pieces of metal or bone at the tips were commonly used. Such a device could easily cause disfigurement and serious trauma, such as ripping pieces of flesh from the body or loss of an eye, in addition to causing severe pain, the victim would approach a state of hypovolemic shock due to loss of blood. The Romans reserved this treatment for non-citizens, as stated in the lex Porcia and lex Sempronia, the poet Horace refers to the horribile flagellum in his Satires. Typically, the one to be punished was stripped naked and bound to a low pillar so that he could bend over it, two lictors alternated blows from the bare shoulders down the body to the soles of the feet. There was no limit to the number of blows inflicted—this was left to the lictors to decide, nonetheless, Livy, Suetonius and Josephus report cases of flagellation where victims died while still bound to the post. Flagellation was referred to as death by some authors, as many victims died shortly thereafter. Cicero reports in In Verrem, pro mortuo sublatus brevi postea mortuus, the Whipping Act was passed in England in 1530. Under this legislation, vagrants were to be taken to a populated area and there tied to the end of a cart naked. In England, offenders were sentenced to be flogged at a carts tail along a length of public street, usually near the scene of the crime. In the late century, however, the courts occasionally ordered that the flogging should be carried out in prison or a house of correction rather than on the streets. From the 1720s courts began explicitly to differentiate between private whipping and public whipping, over the course of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries the proportion of whippings carried out in public declined, but the number of private whippings increased
28.
Capital punishment
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Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is a government sanctioned practice whereby a person is put to death by the state as a punishment for a crime. The sentence that someone be punished in such a manner is referred to as a death sentence, etymologically, the term capital in this context alluded to execution by beheading. Fifty-six countries retain capital punishment,103 countries have abolished it de jure for all crimes, six have abolished it for ordinary crimes. Capital punishment is a matter of controversy in various countries and states. In the European Union, Article 2 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union prohibits the use of capital punishment, also, the Council of Europe, which has 47 member states, prohibits the use of the death penalty by its members. The United Nations General Assembly has adopted, in 2007,2008,2010,2012 and 2014, non-binding resolutions calling for a moratorium on executions. Although most nations have abolished capital punishment, over 60% of the population live in countries where executions take place, such as China, India. Execution of criminals and political opponents has been used by nearly all societies—both to punish crime, in most countries that practise capital punishment it is reserved for murder, terrorism, war crimes, espionage, treason, defection or as part of military justice. In many countries use the death penalty, drug trafficking is also a capital offence. In China, human trafficking and serious cases of corruption are punished by the death penalty, in militaries around the world courts-martial have imposed death sentences for offences such as cowardice, desertion, insubordination, and mutiny. The use of formal execution extends to the beginning of recorded history, most historical records and various primitive tribal practices indicate that the death penalty was a part of their justice system. Communal punishment for wrongdoing generally included compensation by the wrongdoer, corporal punishment, shunning, banishment, usually, compensation and shunning were enough as a form of justice. The response to crime committed by neighbouring tribes or communities included a formal apology, a blood feud or vendetta occurs when arbitration between families or tribes fails or an arbitration system is non-existent. This form of justice was common before the emergence of a system based on state or organized religion. It may result from crime, land disputes or a code of honour, acts of retaliation underscore the ability of the social collective to defend itself and demonstrate to enemies that injury to property, rights, or the person will not go unpunished. However, in practice, it is difficult to distinguish between a war of vendetta and one of conquest. Elaborations of tribal arbitration of feuds included peace settlements often done in a religious context, compensation was based on the principle of substitution which might include material compensation, exchange of brides or grooms, or payment of the blood debt. Settlement rules could allow for animal blood to replace human blood, the person offered for execution did not have to be an original perpetrator of the crime because the system was based on tribes, not individuals
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Van Tuong Nguyen
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Van Tuong Nguyen baptised Caleb, was an Australian from Melbourne, Victoria convicted of drug trafficking in Singapore. A Vietnamese Australian, he was addressed as Nguyen Tuong Van in the Singaporean media, his name in Vietnamese custom. Van Tuong Nguyen and his brother, Dang Khoa Nguyen, were born in a refugee camp at Songkhla in Thailand to Vietnamese parents. He did not know his father until 2001 when he travelled from the United States to Australia and his mother, Kim, is Vietnamese and migrated to Australia shortly after the boys birth. In 1987, she married a Vietnamese-Australian who beat them often, Nguyen was educated at St Ignatius School in Richmond, St Josephs Primary School in Springvale and Mount Waverley Secondary College. After leaving school at 18, he intended to study at Deakin University, Nguyen started his own computer sales business in 1999. After his brother Khoa got into trouble, Van wound up the business. He then found a sales, research and marketing job and earned between A$1,500 to A$2,500 a month and he subsequently took long leave between June and December 2002. In his confession, he stated he was on medication for acne that required 4 months leave, in addition to his own financial troubles, Nguyen said he tried to help pay his twin brothers debt of A$12,000. His twin brothers loan had to be repaid by the end of the 2002, Nguyen could afford to repay only A$4000, the interest on the loan. By October 2002, Van had been out of a job for four months and sustaining expenses which included interest on the loan and personal living costs, all totaling A$580 a month. In November 2002, Nguyen met with a Chinese man named Tan in the court of Box Hill central mall who told him to travel to Sydney to meet a Vietnamese man named Sun. Sun proposed that he would repay Nguyens loans if Nguyen transported packages from Cambodia back to Melbourne and possibly Sydney, the man said the packages contained white, which Nguyen understood to be heroin. It was Nguyens first trip overseas from Australia since his immigration and he reached Phnom Penh at midday on 3 December 2002 after leaving Sydney in the evening of the previous day. He met with a Cambodian man at the Lucky Burger restaurant on 4 December and was taken by car to a garage where he was told to smoke some heroin, the following day, Nguyen met his associates at the Lucky Burger and was again taken to the garage. Nguyen was instructed to stay in Phnom Penh until 10 December, on 8 December, he decided to fly to Ho Chi Minh City, in Vietnam. On 10 December he returned to Phnom Penh, but missed his scheduled meeting at the Lucky Burger, on 11 December he was taken to the garage, where he was then instructed on how to crush heroin bricks and to strap the powdered drug packages to his body. The rest of the day was spent crushing and packaging the drugs in his hotel room and he checked out of the hotel the next day and went to the airport
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Cannabis (drug)
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Cannabis, also known as marijuana among several other names, is a preparation of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or medicine. The main psychoactive part of cannabis is tetrahydrocannabinol, one of 483 known compounds in the plant, Cannabis can be used by smoking, vaporization, within food, or as an extract. Cannabis is often used for its mental and physical effects, such as a high or stoned feeling, a change in perception, euphoria. Short term side effects may include a decrease in short-term memory, dry mouth, impaired motor skills, red eyes, long term side effects may include addiction, decreased mental ability in those who started as teenagers, and behavioral problems in children whose mothers used cannabis during pregnancy. Onset of effects is within minutes when smoked and about 30 to 60 minutes when cooked and they last for between two and six hours. Cannabis is mostly used recreationally or as a medicinal drug and it may also be used for religious or spiritual purposes. In 2013, between 128 and 232 million people used cannabis, in 2015, 43% of Americans had used cannabis, which increased to 51% in 2016. About 12% have used it in the past year, and 7. 3% have used it in the past month and this makes it the most commonly used illegal drug both in the world and the United States. The earliest recorded uses date from the 3rd millennium BC, since the early 20th century, cannabis has been subject to legal restrictions. The possession, use, and sale of cannabis is illegal in most countries of the world, Medical cannabis refers to the physician-recommended use of cannabis, which is taking place in Canada, Belgium, Australia, the Netherlands, Spain, and 23 U. S. states. Cannabis use started to become popular in the US in the 1970s, support for legalization has increased in the United States and several US states have legalized recreational or medical use. Medical cannabis, or medical marijuana can refer to the use of cannabis and its cannabinoids to treat disease or improve symptoms, however, the use of cannabis as a medicine has not been rigorously scientifically tested, often due to production restrictions and other federal regulations. There is limited evidence suggesting cannabis can be used to reduce nausea and vomiting during chemotherapy, to improve appetite in people with HIV/AIDS and its use for other medical applications is insufficient for conclusions about safety or efficacy. Short-term use increases the risk of minor and major adverse effects. Common side effects include dizziness, feeling tired, vomiting, long-term effects of cannabis are not clear. Concerns include memory and cognition problems, risk of addiction, schizophrenia in people. Cannabis has psychoactive and physiological effects when consumed, at higher doses, effects can include altered body image, auditory and/or visual illusions, pseudohallucinations and ataxia from selective impairment of polysynaptic reflexes. In some cases, cannabis can lead to states such as depersonalization and derealization
31.
Honduras
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Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a republic in Central America. It has at times referred to as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras. Honduras was home to several important Mesoamerican cultures, most notably the Maya, the Spanish introduced Roman Catholicism and the now predominant Spanish language, along with numerous customs that have blended with the indigenous culture. Honduras has the worlds highest murder rate, Honduras spans about 112,492 km2 and has a population exceeding 8 million. Its northern portions are part of the Western Caribbean Zone, as reflected in the areas demographics and culture. Honduras is known for its natural resources, including minerals, coffee, tropical fruit, and sugar cane, as well as for its growing textiles industry. Honduras literally means depths in Spanish, the name could either refer to the bay of Trujillo as an anchorage, fondura in the Leonese dialect of Spanish, or to Columbuss alleged quote that Gracias a Dios que hemos salido de esas Honduras. It was not until the end of the 16th century that Honduras was used for the whole province, prior to 1580, Honduras only referred to the eastern part of the province, and Higueras referred to the western part. Another early name is Guaymuras, revived as the name for the dialogue in 2009 that took place in Honduras as opposed to Costa Rica. In pre-Columbian times, modern Honduras was part of the Mesoamerican cultural area, in the west, the Maya civilization flourished for hundreds of years. The dominant state within Hondurass borders was in Copán, Copán fell with the other Lowland centres during the conflagrations of the Terminal Classic in the 9th century. The Maya of this civilization survive in western Honduras as the Chorti, remains of other Pre-Columbian cultures are found throughout the country. On 30 July 1502 Columbus sent his brother Bartholomew to explore the islands and Bartholomew encountered a Mayan trading vessel from Yucatán, carrying well-dressed Maya and a rich cargo. Bartholomews men stole whatever cargo they wanted and kidnapped the elderly captain to serve as an interpreter in what was the first recorded encounter between the Spanish and the Maya. In March 1524, Gil González Dávila became the first Spaniard to enter Honduras as a conquistador, followed by Hernán Cortés, bringing forces down from Mexico. Much of the conquest was done in the two decades, first by groups loyal to Cristóbal de Olid, and then by those loyal of Francisco Montejo. In addition to Spanish resources, the conquerors relied heavily on armed forces from Mexico—Tlaxcalans, resistance to conquest was led in particular by Lempira, and many regions in the north never fell to the Spanish, notably the Miskito Kingdom. After the Spanish conquest, Honduras became part of Spains vast empire in the New World within the Kingdom of Guatemala, Trujillo and Gracias were the first city-capitals
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Murder rate
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List of countries by intentional homicide rate per year per 100,000 inhabitants. The reliability of underlying national murder rate data may vary, the legal definition of intentional homicide differs among countries. Intentional homicide may or may not include infanticide, assisted suicide or euthanasia and they may also be under-reported for political reasons. Another problem for the comparability of the figures is that some data may include attempts. In general the values in these lists should not include failed attempts except when mentioned otherwise, a study undertaken by the Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development estimated that there were approximately 490,000 intentional homicides in 2004. The study estimated that the rate was 7.6 intentional homicides per 100,000 inhabitants for 2004. UNODC reported a global average intentional homicide rate of 6.2 per 100,000 population for 2012, UNODC calculated a rate of 6.9 in 2010. Note, Please update the UNODC tables only with UNODC data, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has a site called Global Study on Homicide. All data in this section comes from reports on that site, latest year for each country is indicated in the table below. Intentional homicide, as defined by UNODC, is unlawful death purposefully inflicted on a person by another person, rates are calculated per 100,000 inhabitants. The UNODC report has bar charts and timeline graphs of homicide rates for subregions, but the report does not list exact rate numbers. Subregion counts are not found in the report, but may be calculated by totaling the counts for each country in a subregion. Also, do not add references within the table itself and this breaks row alignment between the column of row numbers on the left, and the rest of the table. See Help, Sorting for info on row numbering, click on the sorting cell below the rate column in order to sort countries by homicide rate. The row number column on the left is static and its order does not change and it is useful for ranking countries by homicide rate. Click on the cell below the country column to sort alphabetically. The initial order of the countries is alphabetical within subregion, subregions are initially in alphabetical order within regions. Reload the page to return to that initial subregion order, click sorting buttons to sort alphabetically or numerically
33.
International Crisis Group
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It advocates policies directly with governments, multilateral organisations and other political actors as well as the media. The International Crisis Group was founded after a meeting in January 1993 between former US diplomat and then-President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Morton I. Abramowitz and then future World Bank Vice-President Mark Malloch Brown on a flight to Sarajevo, George Soros was involved in discussions early on and provided seed money. Disaster relief specialist Fred Cuny made significant contributions to relief in Bosnia. A January 1995 meeting in London brought many international figures together, in mid-1995 it was formally registered in the US as a tax-exempt non-profit organisation. From 1996 to 1999, Crisis Group had an budget of around $2m and around 20 full-time staff. Following the death of its first president, Nicholas Hinton, in January 1997 and his replacement by Alain Destexhe, Destexhe resigned in October 1999 and was replaced by Gareth Evans, with Martti Ahtisaari becoming Chairman both from the beginning of 2000. Louise Arbour became president in July 2009, succeeded in September 2014 by Jean-Marie Guéhenno, the International Crisis Group gives advice to governments and intergovernmental bodies like the United Nations, European Union and World Bank on the prevention and resolution of deadly conflict. Crisis Group raises funds from mainly western governments, charitable foundations, companies, in 2011/2012, 49% of its funding came from governments, 20% from philanthropic organisations, and 31% from individuals and private foundations. During 2012/2013 unrestricted income for operations was $18.3 million with total expenditure of $21. In the early stages of Crisis Groups history, funding was much less diverse, mainly from co-founder George Soros, Crisis Group has been criticised for serving the interests of its corporate and government funders. Crisis Groups international headquarters have been in Brussels, with offices in Washington DC. Crisis Group has had offices in 30 locations, with teams of analysts dispatched to areas at risk of outbreak, escalation. Based on the information these teams have been gathering, Crisis Group has created analytical reports with recommendations for world leaders, all reports and conflict alerts, are publicly available. The monthly CrisisWatch bulletin is online since 2003, Crisis Groups website also stated that of 116 Crisis Group positions on 1 February 2014,63 were based in the field in 26 locations. Crisis Group Board of Trustees has been co-chaired by Mark Malloch Brown and Ghassan Salamé, Dean of the Paris School of International Affairs, as of September 2014 Crisis Groups President and Chief Executive was Jean-Marie Guéhenno, former UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations. He was preceded by Louise Arbour, formerly the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and she was preceded from January 2000 to July 2009 by Gareth Evans, former Foreign Minister of Australia. The Vice Chair of the Board is Ayo Obe, lawyer, columnist, as of January 2014 the Board consisted of the following other trustees, Crisis Groups In Pursuit of Peace Award was established in 2005, and is associated with a gala event in New York City
34.
Christopher Coke
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Due to their fathers drug profits, Christopher and his siblings grew up amidst wealth and attended elite private schools. His sister and brother were killed in drug-related violence, in 1987 and 2004, Coke was gradually brought into his fathers organization. After his fathers death in 1992, Dudus, at the age of 23, became leader of the gang and he developed community programs to help the poor and had so much local support that Jamaican police were unable to enter this neighborhood without community consent. Coke was arrested on charges and extradited to the United States in 2010. His arrest had provoked violence among Cokes supporters in West Kingston, in 2011 Coke pleaded guilty to federal racketeering charges in connection with drug trafficking and assault. On 8 June 2012, he was sentenced by a Federal Court in New York City to 23 years in Federal prison, Christopher Michael Coke was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1969, the youngest son of Lester Lloyd Coke and Patricia Halliburton. He had a sister and brother. His father Lester Coke, who was known as Jim Brown, was the founder of a violent drug gang called the Shower Posse. The gang ruled the Tivoli Gardens neighborhood of West Kingston, where the Coke family lived, although the area had a history of extreme poverty, Coke earned immense wealth from the gangs profits and his family lived in luxury. Christopher Coke and his siblings attended school with children of the political elite. The family suffered from the associated with the competition of the drug trade. Cokes sister was shot in 1987. Cokes brother was killed in 1992, the United States Department of Justice indicted Lester Coke and other key members of the gang, including Vivian Blake, on drug trafficking and murder charges in 1990. Two years after his arrest, the senior Coke died in a fire at the General Penitentiary in Kingston. Christopher Coke had been incorporated into his fathers trusted assistants and he effectively began to rule the gang at the age of 23, after his father died. He also developed himself as a community leader in Tivoli Gardens and he distributed money to the areas poor, created employment, and set up community centers to help the children and others. He gained widespread support in the community, to the extent that Jamaican police had to seek permission from his organization before entering the neighborhood, in 2009 the United States first asked the Jamaican government for the extradition of Coke on drug trafficking charges. Bruce Golding, the minister of Jamaica and leader of the Jamaica Labour Party
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Violent crime
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A violent crime or crime of violence is a crime in which an offender uses or threatens force upon a victim. This entails both crimes in which the violent act is the objective, such as murder, as well as crimes in which violence is the means to an end, Violent crimes may, or may not, be committed with weapons. Depending on the jurisdiction, violent crimes may vary from homicide to harassment, the comparison of violent crime statistics between countries is usually problematic, due to the way different countries classify crime. Valid comparisons require that similar offences between jurisdictions be compared, often this is not possible, because crime statistics aggregate equivalent offences in such different ways that make it difficult or impossible to obtain a valid comparison. Depending on the jurisdiction, violent crimes may include, homicide, murder, assault, manslaughter, sexual assault, rape, robbery, negligence, endangerment, kidnapping, extortion, different countries also have different systems of recording and reporting crimes. The first annual survey of crime victimization in Australia, the Crime Victimisation Survey, was conducted in 2008-09. Canada conducts an annual measure of crime incidences called the Uniform Crime Reporting Survey, UCR Violent Criminal Code violations include, homicide, attempted murder, sexual assault, assault, robbery, criminal harassment, uttering threats, and other violent violations. Canada also collects information on crime victimization every five years via its General Social Survey on Victimisation, among the eight GSS crimes tracked are three violent crimes, sexual assault, robbery, and physical assault. Austria, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, England, Latvia, Netherlands, Portugal, Greece, an example is the case of Ilias Kasidiaris in 2012. Kasidaris, then spokesperson for Greeces far-right Golden Dawn party, slapped a female opponent in the face during a live televised debate. He was subsequently wanted by Greek prosecutors for assault and faced an arrest warrant, france does not count minor violence like slapping somebody as assault. The United Kingdom includes all violence against the person, sexual offences, today violent crimes are considered the most heinous whereas historically, according to Simon Dedo, crimes against property were equally important. Rates of violent crime in the UK are recorded by the British Crime Survey, for the 2010/2011 report on crime in England and Wales, the statistics show that violent crime continues a general downward trend observed over the last few decades as shown in the graph. The 2010/11 BCS showed overall violence was down 47 per cent on the level seen at its peak in 1995, in 2010/11,31 people per 1000 interviewed reported being a victim of violent crime in the 12 preceding months. Regarding murder, increasing levels of homicide from the 1960s through to the end of the twentieth century, recently the murder rate has declined, a fall of 19 per cent in homicides since 2001/02, as measured by The Homicide Index. Non-fatal violence is reported in the NCVS, which measures rape and sexual assault, robbery, the UCR tracks similar non-fatal violence, plus murder and non-negligent manslaughter recorded by law enforcement. The UCR includes homicide, arson, and commercial crimes, while the NCVS does not, the UCR excludes simple assault and sexual assault, which are in the NCVS. The NCVS data are estimates from a representative sample of U. S. households
36.
Federal Bureau of Investigation
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The Federal Bureau of Investigation is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States, which simultaneously serves as the nations prime federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the U. S. Department of Justice, Intelligence Community and reports to both the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence. A leading U. S. counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and criminal investigative organization, although many of the FBIs functions are unique, its activities in support of national security are comparable to those of the British MI5 and the Russian FSB. At an FBI field office, a senior-level FBI officer concurrently serves as the representative of the Director of National Intelligence. Despite its domestic focus, the FBI also maintains a significant international footprint and these overseas offices exist primarily for the purpose of coordination with foreign security services and do not usually conduct unilateral operations in the host countries. The FBI can and does at times carry out secret activities overseas, just as the CIA has a domestic function. The FBI was established in 1908 as the Bureau of Investigation and its name was changed to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1935. The FBI headquarters is the J. Edgar Hoover Building, located in Washington, in the fiscal year 2012, the Bureaus total budget was approximately $8.12 billion. In 1896, the National Bureau of Criminal Identification was founded, the 1901 assassination of President William McKinley created an urgent perception that America was under threat from anarchists. The Departments of Justice and Labor had been keeping records on anarchists for years, the Justice Department had been tasked with the regulation of interstate commerce since 1887, though it lacked the staff to do so. It had made little effort to relieve its staff shortage until the breakage of the Oregon land fraud scandal at approximately the turn of the 20th Century, President Roosevelt instructed Attorney General Charles Bonaparte to organize an autonomous investigative service that would report only to the Attorney General. Bonaparte reached out to other agencies, including the Secret Service, for personnel, on May 27,1908, the Congress forbade this use of Treasury employees by the Justice Department, citing fears that the new agency would serve as a secret police department. Again at Roosevelts urging, Bonaparte moved to organize a formal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Investigation was created on July 26,1908, after the Congress had adjourned for the summer. Attorney General Bonaparte, using Department of Justice expense funds, hired thirty-four people, including veterans of the Secret Service. Its first Chief was Stanley Finch, Bonaparte notified the Congress of these actions in December 1908. The bureaus first official task was visiting and making surveys of the houses of prostitution in preparation for enforcing the White Slave Traffic Act, or Mann Act, in 1932, the bureau was renamed the United States Bureau of Investigation. The following year it was linked to the Bureau of Prohibition, in the same year, its name was officially changed from the Division of Investigation to the present-day Federal Bureau of Investigation, or FBI. J. Edgar Hoover served as Director from 1924 to 1972, a combined 48 years with the BOI, DOI, Hoover was substantially involved in most major cases and projects that the FBI handled during his tenure
37.
September 11 attacks
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The September 11 attacks were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda on the United States on the morning of Tuesday, September 11,2001. The attacks killed 2,996 people, injured over 6,000 others, two of the planes, American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, were crashed into the North and South towers, respectively, of the World Trade Center complex in New York City. A third plane, American Airlines Flight 77, was crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia and it was the deadliest incident for firefighters and law enforcement officers in the history of the United States, with 343 and 72 killed respectively. Suspicion for the attack fell on al-Qaeda. The United States responded to the attacks by launching the War on Terror and invading Afghanistan to depose the Taliban, many countries strengthened their anti-terrorism legislation and expanded the powers of law enforcement and intelligence agencies to prevent terrorist attacks. Although al-Qaedas leader, Osama bin Laden, initially denied any involvement, al-Qaeda and bin Laden cited U. S. support of Israel, the presence of U. S. troops in Saudi Arabia, and sanctions against Iraq as motives. Having evaded capture for almost a decade, bin Laden was located and killed by SEAL Team Six of the U. S. Navy in May 2011. S. many closings, evacuations, and cancellations followed, out of respect or fear of further attacks. Cleanup of the World Trade Center site was completed in May 2002, on November 18,2006, construction of One World Trade Center began at the World Trade Center site. The building was opened on November 3,2014. The origins of al-Qaeda can be traced to 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden traveled to Afghanistan and helped organize Arab mujahideen to resist the Soviets. Under the guidance of Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden became more radical, in 1996, bin Laden issued his first fatwā, calling for American soldiers to leave Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden used Islamic texts to exhort Muslims to attack Americans until the stated grievances are reversed, Muslim legal scholars have throughout Islamic history unanimously agreed that the jihad is an individual duty if the enemy destroys the Muslim countries, according to bin Laden. Bin Laden, who orchestrated the attacks, initially denied but later admitted involvement, in November 2001, U. S. forces recovered a videotape from a destroyed house in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. In the video, bin Laden is seen talking to Khaled al-Harbi, on December 27,2001, a second bin Laden video was released. In the video, he said, It has become clear that the West in general and it is the hatred of crusaders. Terrorism against America deserves to be praised because it was a response to injustice, aimed at forcing America to stop its support for Israel, the transcript refers several times to the United States specifically targeting Muslims. He said that the attacks were carried out because, we are free, and want to regain freedom for our nation. As you undermine our security we undermine yours, Bin Laden said he had personally directed his followers to attack the World Trade Center and the Pentagon
38.
Heroin
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Heroin, also known as diamorphine among other names, is an opiate typically used as a recreational drug for its euphoric effects. Medically it is used to relieve pain and as a form of opioid replacement therapy alongside counseling. Heroin is typically injected, usually into a vein, however, onset of effects is usually rapid and lasts for a few hours. Common side effects include respiratory depression and about a quarter of those who use heroin become physically dependent, other side effects can include abscesses, infected heart valves, blood borne infections, constipation, and pneumonia. After a history of use, withdrawal symptoms can begin within hours of last use. When given by injection into a vein, heroin has two to three times the effect as a dose of morphine. It typically comes as a white or brown powder, treatment of heroin addiction often includes behavioral therapy and medications. Medications used may include methadone or naltrexone, a heroin overdose may be treated with naloxone. An estimated 17 million people as of 2015 use opiates such as heroin, the total number of opiate users has increased from 1998 to 2007 after which it has remained more or less stable. In the United States about 1.6 percent of people have used heroin at some point in time, when people die from overdosing on a drug, the drug is usually an opioid. Heroin was first made by C. R. Alder Wright in 1874 from morphine, internationally, heroin is controlled under Schedules I and IV of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. It is generally illegal to make, possess, or sell heroin without a license, in 2015 Afghanistan produced about 66% of the worlds opium. Often heroin, which is sold, is mixed with other substances such as sugar or strychnine. The original trade name of heroin is typically used in non-medical settings and it is used as a recreational drug for the euphoria it induces. Anthropologist Michael Agar once described heroin as the perfect whatever drug, tolerance develops quickly, and increased doses are needed in order to achieve the same effects. Its popularity with recreational users, compared to morphine, reportedly stems from its perceived different effects. In particular, users report an intense rush, an acute transcendent state of euphoria, while other opioids of recreational use produce only morphine, heroin also leaves 6-MAM, also a psycho-active metabolite. Equipotent injected doses had comparable action courses, with no difference in subjects self-rated feelings of euphoria, ambition, nervousness, relaxation, drowsiness, short-term addiction studies by the same researchers demonstrated that tolerance developed at a similar rate to both heroin and morphine
39.
Drug Enforcement Administration
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The Drug Enforcement Administration is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the U. S. Department of Justice, tasked with combating drug smuggling and use within the United States. S. It has sole responsibility for coordinating and pursuing U. S. drug investigations both domestic, and abroad, the Drug Enforcement Administration was established on July 1,1973, by Reorganization Plan No.2 of 1973, signed by President Richard Nixon on July 28. It proposed the creation of a federal agency to enforce the federal drug laws as well as consolidate and coordinate the governments drug control activities. Congress accepted the proposal, as they were concerned with the availability of drugs. From the early 1970s, DEA headquarters was located at 1405 I Street NW in downtown Washington, however, then–Attorney General Edwin Meese determined that the headquarters had to be located in close proximity to the Attorney Generals office. Thus, in 1989, the relocated to 600–700 Army-Navy Drive in the Pentagon City area of Arlington, Virginia. On April 19,1995, Timothy McVeigh attacked the Alfred P, security measures include hydraulic steel roadplates to enforce standoff distance from the building, metal detectors, and guard stations. In February 2003, the DEA established a Digital Evidence Laboratory within its Office of Forensic Sciences, the DEA is headed by an Administrator of Drug Enforcement appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the U. S. Senate. The Administrator reports to the Attorney General through the Deputy Attorney General, the Administrator is assisted by a Deputy Administrator, the Chief of Operations, the Chief Inspector, and three Assistant Administrators. Other senior staff include the financial officer and the Chief Counsel. The Administrator and Deputy Administrator are the only presidentially-appointed personnel in the DEA, DEAs headquarters is located in Arlington, Virginia across from the Pentagon. It maintains its own DEA Academy located on the United States Marine Corps base at Quantico and it maintains 21 domestic field divisions with 227 field offices and 86 foreign offices in 62 countries. With a budget exceeding 2 billion dollars, DEA employs over 10,800 people, becoming a Special Agent or Intelligence Analyst with the DEA is a competitive process. DEA agents starting salary is $49, 746–$55,483, after four years working as an agent, the salary jumps to above $92,592. Upon graduation, recruits earn themselves the title of DEA Special Agent, the DEA excludes from consideration job-applicants who have a history of any use of narcotics or illicit drugs. Investigation usually includes a polygraph test for special-agent, diversion-investigator, exceptions to this policy may be made for applicants who admit to limited youthful and experimental use of marijuana. The DEAs relatively firm stance on this issue contrasts with that of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the DEA Aviation Division or Office of Aviation Operations is an airborne division based in Fort Worth Alliance Airport, Texas. The current OA fleet consists of 106 aircraft and 124 DEA pilots, rapid Response Teams was decommissioned by DEA Administrator Chuck Rosenburg on March 2017 via memorandum
40.
Corruption in Venezuela
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Corruption in Venezuela is high by world standards and is prevalent throughout many levels of Venezuelas society. In the case of Venezuela, the discovery of oil in the twentieth century has worsened political corruption. A2014 Gallup poll found that 75% of Venezuelans believed that corruption was widespread throughout the Venezuelan government, discontent with corruption was cited by opposition-aligned groups as one of the reasons for the 2014 Venezuelan protests. The history of Venezuela has been mired with persistent and intense presence of corruption, in 1991, author Ruth Capriles wrote The history of corruption in Venezuela is the history of our democracy depicting the many instances of corruption in the country. In 1997, Pro Calidad de Vida, a Venezuelan NGO claimed that some $100 billion from oil revenue has been misused in the preceding 25 years, during the Venezuelan War of Independence in 1813, Simón Bolívar made a decree that any corruption was punishable by death. On 1 January 1814, an assembly gathered and a junta of the most influential inhabitants of Caracas gathered under Bolívar, legally naming him dictator. During his presidency in the 1820s, Bolívar made two decrees stating corruption was the violation of the public interest and reinforced his edict by saying such actions were punishable by death, antonio Guzmán Blanco led a fairly steady Venezuelan government that was allegedly ripe with corruption. He sought to change Venezuela from a backward and savage country, to a prosperous, admiring the United States. In 1884, Guzmán appointed Joaquín Crespo to be his successor, Crespo was renowned for establishing the ring of iron by making connections with officials before the end of his first term in 1886. He placed his allies on congressional seats to help guarantee his reelection which angered Guzmán, a power struggle then ensued between the two, leaving Venezuelan politics weakened in its wake. After a rebellion was initiated against Crespo by José Manuel Hernández in March 1898, Crespo led troops to quell the rebels, cipriano Castro served as governor of Táchira until he was overthrown and exiled to Colombia in 1892. He then amassed considerable wealth through illegal trading and hired a private army with which he intended to march on Caracas. After a successful coup in 1899, his dictatorship was one of the most corrupt periods in Venezuelas history, once in charge, Castro began plundering the treasury and modifying the constitution to convenience his administration. He had political opponents murdered or exiled, lived extravagantly and broke down diplomacy with foreign countries, United States Secretary of State Elihu Root called Castro a crazy brute, while historian Edwin Lieuwen labelled him probably the worst of Venezuelas many dictators. From 1908 to 1935, the dictator Juan Vincente Gomez held power, by the time he died, he was by far the richest man in the country. He did little for public education and held basic democratic principles in disdain and his allegedly ruthless crushing of opponents through his secret police earned him the reputation of a tyrant. He was also accused by opponents of trying to turn the country into a personal fiefdom, marcos Pérez Jiménez seized power through a coup in 1952 and declared himself provisional president until being formally elected in 1953. The governments National Security was extremely repressive against critics of the regime and ruthlessly hunted down, in 1957 during the time of reelection, voters had only the choice between voting yes or no to another term for Jiménez
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Illegal drug trade in Venezuela
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Illegal drug trade in Venezuela refers to the practice of illegal drug trade in Venezuela. According to the United Nations, there was an increase of trafficking through Venezuela since 2002. In 2005 Venezuela severed ties with the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, following the departure of the DEA from Venezuela and the expansion of DEAs partnership with Colombia in 2005, Venezuela became more attractive to drug traffickers. Between 2008 and 2012, Venezuelas cocaine seizure ranking among other countries declined, according to a 2009 US report, 90% of US cocaine is sourced from Colombia, with Venezuela and the Caribbean accounting for around 10% of US-destined cocaine trans-shipments in 2010. According to the United States, elements of the Venezuelan security forces have assisted these drug trafficking organizations, Venezuela has its own Cosa Nostra family as if it is Sicilian territory, according to the Italian police. The structure and hierarchy of the Mafia has been reproduced in Venezuela. The Cuntrera-Caruana clan had direct links with the ruling Commission of the Sicilian Mafia, pasquale, Paolo and Gaspare Cuntrera were expelled from Venezuela in 1992, almost secretly smuggled out of the country, as if it concerned one of their own drug transports. It was imperative they could not contact people on the outside who could have used their connections to stop the expulsion. Their expulsion was ordered by a commission of the Venezuelan Senate headed by Senator Cristobal Fernandez Dalo and they were arrested in September 1992 at Fiumicino airport, and in 1996 were sentence to 13–20 years. In 2008 the leader of the Colombian Norte del Valle Cartel, in 2010 Venezuela arrested and deported to the United States Jaime Alberto Beto Marin, then head of the Norte del Valle Cartel. According to Jackson Diehl, Deputy Editorial Page Editor of The Washington Post, there have also been allegations that former president Hugo Chávez and Diosdado Cabello being involved with drug trafficking. They wanted advice as how to traffic cocaine and they brought to the meeting a kilogram of the drug so that the informant could understand its quality. Campo stated on the DEA plane that he was the son of President Maduro. It is expected that without cooperating with investigators, Maduros nephews could face between 20 to 30 years in prison, due to the extradition process, New York courts could not apprehend those who assisted the nephews on their way to Haiti. On November 18,2016, the two nephews were found guilty, with the cash allegedly destined to. help their family stay in power. In a 2009 United States Congress report, it was stated that corruption in the Venezuelan armed forces was facilitating Colombian FARC guerillas drug trafficking, in March 2012, Venezuelas National Assembly removed Supreme Court Justice Eladio Aponte Aponte from his post after an investigation revealed alleged ties to drug-trafficking. Aponte says that, while serving as a judge and he was forced to acquit an army commander who had connections with a 2 metric ton shipment of cocaine. Aponte also claimed that Henry Rangel, former minister of Venezuela
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Illegal drug trade in Colombia
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Illegal drug trade in Colombia refers to a practice of Colombian criminal groups of producing and distributing illegal drugs. Cocaine is produced at $1500/kilo in jungle labs and could be sold on the streets of America for as much as $50, the initial boom in production of drugs in Colombia for export began with marijuana in the 1960s, followed by cocaine in the mid- to late-1970s. The USA intervened in Colombia throughout this period in an attempt to cut off the supply of drugs to the US. The drug barons of Colombia, such as Pablo Escobar and Jose Rodriguez Gacha were long considered by authorities to be among the most dangerous, wealthy, as of 2013, studies show that Colombia is the worlds largest cocaine producer. In that same year, Peru surpassed Colombia as the producer of coca leaves in the world. The value of the trade is assessed at $10 billion per year in U. S. dollars. Colombias share of production is estimated at 43% of global production. Between 1993 and 1999 Colombia became the producer of coca in the world along with cocaine. The effects of production range from environmental damage to effects on education, health. The environment is damaged through deforestation caused by clearing fields for plant cultivation, soil erosion and chemical pollution also have effects on Colombia. The issues are difficult to address because of the wealth and power of drug traffickers, many plantations provide prostitutes to sustain their employees. Sexually transmitted diseases are spread at a pace and contribute to the workers inability to heal from the flesh wounds. The few positive outcomes from the manufacturing of cocaine include temporarily providing a job for a family struggling financially and raising Colombia’s GDP and standard of living. To counter increasing production and consumption, the government of the United States, the Black Tuna Gang was a Miami-based Colombian marijuana-trafficking group. It was responsible for bringing in over 500 tons of marijuana over a 16-month period in the mid-70s, with prohibition, established producers and traffickers formed armed and clandestine cartels. The Medellín Cartel led by Pablo Escobar established a ruthless organization, the cartel sometimes cooperated with guerrilla groups such as the M-19, to process and protect illegal drugs. When conflicts emerged between the Medellín Cartel and the guerrillas, the cartel also promoted the creation of paramilitary groups. S, including Florida, California and New York. The Cali Cartel, also known as Calis Gentlemen, was based in southern Colombia, around the city of Cali, the Cali Cartel was founded by the Rodríguez Orejuela brothers, Gilberto and Miguel, as well as associate José Santacruz Londoño
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