The aviation industry sits squarely in between the issues of terrorism and narcotics smuggling due to both the pervasiveness and importance of air transport in travel and shipping. Cartels and small-time smugglers alike have used air travel as a means to move their product into the United States and throughout the Western world since at least the 1940s if not since the dawn of aviation. The November 2005 arrest of Guatemala's special police anti-drug unit chief and two of his deputies by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents (DEA) on charges of conspiring to import and distribute cocaine in the United States, and the February 2006 arrest of two U.S air marshals in Houston, Texas, who allegedly smuggled cocaine on the flights they were protecting, have once more raised questions about how deeply drug lords and cartels have penetrated sensitive services and the threat they pose to the aviation industry.  

As a critical part of modern society, and as rendered from the numerous hijackings, bombings and attacks on aircraft and airports around the world, aviation interests are considered high-threat targets for terrorism. The 9/11 attacks are nothing new to those who wage war; from the September 1970 quadruple hijacking and bombing of American and Western aircraft in Amman, Jordan, to the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, to the day the World Trade Center turned to rubble, terrorists and warmongers have always set their sights on lucrative transportation targets. It is only now, with increased technology, that retaliatory and preventive measures have been truly investigated and implemented. Following the 9/11 attacks in the United States and as one of the most important pillars of air travel, security measures for airports and aircraft have been dramatically upgraded with the introduction of new counter terrorism procedures and technology that not only detect and prevent a terror attack, but narcotics smuggling as well. 

Airport and Customs administrations around the globe are now utilizing several models of Explosive Detection Systems (EDS), which include trace chemical detectors (TCD) capable of tracing drug residue, as smugglers are still attempting to hide drugs in their checked baggage and carry-on luggage hoping that security screeners are more interested in finding explosives and weapons rather than drugs. As the use of these machines is likely to expand in the coming years, we are likely to see an increase in the number of couriers who are delivering smaller shipments inside their bodies. Machines that are capable of screening (whether using X-rays or millimetric wave imaging) passenger’s bodies are currently in limited use. The use of such machines is likely to grow but will face opposition from members of the public who claim that the intrusive machines violate their privacy. Unlike couriers who deliver shipments of narcotics in their baggage, and in most cases know they are smuggling contraband but never see the contents of the packages they deliver, the use of couriers who smuggle narcotics inside their bodies lowers the threat to a flight, as these couriers have seen the narcotics and placed the drugs inside themselves, which eliminates the possibility that they are delivering a bomb.  

As searching each and every air traveler and his/her bags for narcotics is impossible, other less technological methods are being developed and implemented in the fight against narco-terrorism. One of the major tools in fighting drug smugglers and terrorists is profiling. However, smugglers are adapting to the rapid changes in the security environment at airports and are using children and elderly persons who do not fit the drug smuggler profile. Another “non-tech” method now being explored is partnering government and business interests as a united front against narco-terrorism. As a direct result of the 9/11 attacks, and in order to improve and secure cargo shipments entering U.S airports, seaports and land borders, the U.S government has initiated a voluntary government–business program called Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT). This joint program evaluates a broad range of security topics in order to minimize the participating companies’ vulnerabilities to terrorism including narcotics smuggling.   

The Nature of the Threat

All this talk of drug cartels and terrorists infiltrating air transport begs the questions of who is practicing this new brand of terror funded by the illicit drug trade and what, clearly stated, are the actual threats presented by these groups alone or in concert? Today’s most notable terrorist groups using narco-terrorism are operating in Colombia and include the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the National Liberation Army (ELN) (currently engaged in peace talks with the Colombian government) and the United Self Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) (currently demilitarizing). While the use of drugs is forbidden in the Muslim world, Muslim extremist groups such as the former Taliban in Afghanistan, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) in the Philippines, just to name a few, are also known to use narco-terrorism. Mostly, these groups simply use profits from smuggling drugs to finance their terrorist activities. While the presence of drugs hidden on an aircraft or in the belongings of a passenger (as long as they are not consumed during the flight) does not have an immediate effect on the security or safety of a flight, there are major long term implications of narco-trafficking to air carriers.

Although several large caches of narcotics have been found on commercial aircraft, commercial aviation is typically used to smuggle relatively small shipments of narcotics with the use of a courier. General aviation aircraft are the prime targets of drug cartels, as such aircraft are fast, can carry larger shipments, and can avoid detection. With commercial aircraft, where the major threat is smuggling, the major threat to general aviation aircraft is theft of the aircraft itself; most general aircraft thefts are reported in Latin America where the majority of stolen aircraft are then used for narco-trafficking. 

One method several of the narco-trafficking groups are using to infiltrate commercial aircraft security precautions is that of “insiders”; employees of airports, carriers and different airline service providers who are familiar with security procedures and, in many cases, have the ability to bypass security controls. In June 2005 Colombian authorities arrested a Lebanese man, a member of an international drug trafficking gang that used part of its profits to fund the Hizballah terrorist organization. Six members of the same criminal organization were arrested in Ecuador. The criminal organization reportedly exported cocaine from several countries in South America to the United States, Europe and Asia. The drugs were sent on commercial flights departing from Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Chile, Argentina and Brazil, inside pieces of luggage that were not searched as the gang had a connections with corrupt airport officials in these countries. While this incident did not pose a definite threat to passengers and/or crewmembers, there is a growing concern that “insiders” might help “narco-terrorist” organizations -- knowingly or unknowingly -- to deliver more than “just” narcotics on board an aircraft. In November 1989, a bomb exploded on board a Colombian Avianca Airlines' Boeing 727 just minutes after take-off, killing all 107 passengers and crewmembers on board. An anonymous caller claimed that a group called “The Extraditables,” composed of drug traffickers liable for extradition to the U.S and led by then-drug Lord Pablo Escobar, was behind the bombing.

The presence of drugs on a flight -- as long as they are not consumed during the flight -- does not have an immediate effect on the security or safety of that flight. Yet, as revenues from the successful delivery of this contraband might fund terrorist activity, narco-trafficking should continue to be fought against just like terrorism. With smugglers receiving sentences similar in severity to those given to terrorists as a deterrent to future smugglers.  

While the U.S and a few other Western governments are actively involved in fighting the narco–traffickers and narco-terrorists on their own soil and abroad -- as in Afghanistan and Colombia where Western specialists are training and funding the military and other security agencies to fight the drug lords, cartels and terrorist organizations involved in narco-trafficking -- federal security agencies and customs administrations should all press for more funds and the introduction of passenger “screening machines” to try and seal the end points of such shipments at our airports.

Training of airport ticketing agents and other security personnel in profiling techniques and indicators might also help to detect traffickers. Random checks of passengers and their luggage on arriving and departing flights should also be conducted frequently to deter drug smugglers. In addition, periodic checks of airport and airline employees and their lockers should be conducted, and an employee communication system should be established through which suspicious behavior of another employee can be monitored and reported.

General aviation corporations operating to countries where narco-smuggling/narco-terrorism are identified problems should contract a security guard or utilize their employees to watch the aircraft while on the ground, and local service providers should be used only after an onsite assessment is conducted and the reputation of the vendors has been established. 

The C-TPAT program should be mandatory rather than voluntary for all companies that are involved in the importation of goods to the United States and other countries that want to follow through with the initiative to combat narco-smuggling/narco-terrorism.

It is obvious that the fight against narco-terrorism is far from over, but it not a fight that can be lost. It will require changes not only in the aviation industry, but also in government initiatives, and the forging of partnerships between commerce and government agencies to win.