In the context of digitalization of public relations, drug trafficking is acquiring the features of a complex, self-organizing criminal system, in which sales carried out using information and communication technologies (ICT) are transformed into the distribution core of the drug market. Understanding the functions of sales as a backbone element is of fundamental importance for the development of criminological theory and the improvement of measures to counter drug trafficking. The goal is to identify the place and functions of illicit trafficking in the drug trafficking system; justify its system-forming role and features of transformation in a digital environment. The study is based on systemic, structural-functional and institutional approaches, analysis of the provisions of the 1988 UN Convention, criminological doctrine, judicial practice and modern research on digital drug markets, as well as methods of logical-legal analysis, modeling, interpretation and generalization. It is justified that drug trafficking is a multi-level criminal system, including production and raw materials, logistics, distribution and sales, financial, economic and management and security subsystems. It was established that sales perform integrative, communicative, distribution, regulatory, economic, innovative and protective functions, ensuring the reproduction of the system. It has been shown that when using ICT, sales acquire the quality of a distribution core that controls the flow of drugs, information and income, increasing the latency and sustainability of drug crime.
illicit drug trafficking, illegal drug distribution, information and communication technologies, digital drug markets, organized crime, money laundering
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