War and organised crime gone global

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POPPY Interactive takes you on an eye-opening journey that reveals how drug money destabilizes entire countries, fuels global conflicts, and allows a worldwide illegal economy to grow.
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Northern Route
The war’s ante-chamber

Former Soviet states along the Northern Route are so unstable they are like the war’s ante-chamber, an accident waiting to happen. In Tajikistan, drug trafficking makes up the equivalent of an estimated 30% of GDP, leaving little doubt about government involvement. After war broke out in Ukraine, the region has become a new conduit for traffickers.

Balkan Route
The old route

The Balkan Route is the old traditional route for trafficking heroin. The Kosovo Liberation Army was one of the first rebel movements to copy the business model of the Afghan resistance by using large-scale heroin trafficking to finance their uprising during the war in Former Yugoslavia.

Southern Route
New kid on the block

New kid on the block of trafficking routes is the Southern Route. The burned out wreckage of an unregistered Boeing 727 transporting tons of cocaine in the Mali desert alarmed security analysts around the world. Drug trafficking is booming in some of the most volatile areas of West-Africa, providing revenue for groups as Al Qaida and ISIS.

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Background data

Insights

Global traffic

Spectacular increase in sea transport, air traffic and the use of mobile phones

Corruption in Central Asia

Distribution of crime groups in Kyrgyzstan and main drug trafficking routes
Drug routes, insecurity and vulnerable/unsecured sections of the Tajik and Kyrgyz border
Net profit from heroin trade in relation to GDP
Prevalence of bribery, by type of public official and by level of income, 2013

The economy behind ISIS

Natural resources and criminal activities
Captagon amphetamines

Jihadi Holiday

Mujahideen fighting in Afghanistan
Mujahideen fighting in Syria

Afghan opium

Production of opium in Afghanistan
Relation between security incidents and opium production

Cocaine in West Africa

Streetvalue of 1000 kilograms of cocaine versus the military budgets in Western Africa
How to fly a Boeing full of cocaine across the ocean
Trans-Sahara trafficking and threat finance

Guns vs Drugs

Profit margins of coffee, heroin and cocaine
The average cost of an AK-47 around the world

The money trail

The flow of drug money from the UK to Afghanistan and Pakistan
Illicit financial flows into the United Arab Emirates
Routes
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POPPY Interactive takes you on an eye-opening journey that reveals how drug money destabilizes entire countries, fuels global conflicts, and allows a worldwide illegal economy to grow.