Maritime Drug Interdiction Capacity

Maritime drug interdiction capacity is the ability to detect, track, board, and stop drug shipments moving through ports and at sea. Taking the shine off: albedo and global temperatures uses West Africa Cocaine Transit to show how this capacity can lag behind traffickers’ logistics.

Ori Ogunbiyi says governments lack advanced security technology for ports, maritime borders, and fast-boat interception, and that some countries lack even sniffer dogs at airports. Paulo Silva adds that organized crime groups increasingly use powerful go-fast boats, which are dangerous to intercept.

Key Claims

• Maritime capacity is not only ships; it includes port scanning, intelligence, dogs, pay, training, and fast response.
• Go-fast boats and at-sea transfers make interdiction physically dangerous and technically demanding.
• Weak capacity increases the corruption pressure that can lead to Narco-State Risk.

Connections

• West Africa Cocaine Transit, Cocaine Route Displacement, Narco-State Risk, and Small-State Enforcement Capacity - related enforcement concepts.
• West Africa, Liberia, Ori Ogunbiyi, Paulo Silva, and Maritime Analysis and Information Centre - source places and people.