Digitisation appears to have accelerated cross-border trafficking as social media connects buyers from one country to cheaper, more accessible illicit markets in another, says an arms trade researcher.
File photo of cockatoos under the custody of Indonesian nature conservation agency officials in a separate case 2021. The suspects apparently sold over 100 endangered lories, cockatoos and parrots in the Philippines and used the profits to buy M16s and a shotgun. Police interdicted them as they returned to Indonesia and seized more weapons during follow-up investigations.
Convergence empowers criminal actors and exacerbates the impacts of illicit economies, such as armed violence and biodiversity loss. In Southeast Asia, arms trafficking appears to converge most often with drug trafficking and smuggling contraband goods such as untaxed cigarettes, fuel, alcohol or rice.
Firearms are more likely to gravitate around drugs and other contraband as a means of protection and coercion in a risky, competitive market environment. Wildlife traffickers likely do not face similar market pressures. A 2022 Global Initiative study on online bird trafficking in Indonesia identified over 1,000 unique advertisements for endangered bird species in 600 private Facebook groups.Elsewhere in Southeast Asia, digitisation appears to have accelerated cross-border trafficking as social media connects buyers from one country to cheaper, more accessible illicit markets in another.
These developments could benefit illicit actors in Indonesia, including Papuan separatist armed groups and jihadist organisations. Indonesian militants have reportedly sought weapons and military training in Mindanao, while armed groups members active in the Celebes and Sulu seas likely engage in drug running and other illicit activities.
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