Drug use and trafficking is one of the most significant problems of today’s society. According to the United Nations Office of Drug Control Program, 16 million people are described as problem drug users meaning they are dependent to illegal drugs in their daily life. Problems associated with illegal drugs are not only associated with people’s health but also related to economy, politics and social life. Illegal drug trafficking is a multi-billion dollar industry. When it spreads across society, illegal drug business is highly associated with judicial, political, and socio-economical instability in local communities.Arguably one of the leading crime prevention theories is Situational Crime Prevention theory. Situational Crime Prevention seeks to reduce opportunities of specific crimes by increasing risk and reducing the awards. Positive effects of situational prevention strategies on street level crimes are well documented in rigorous academic studies. Although the situational approach has been successfully applied to street level crimes, there are few examples of application to macro level cross-border crimes.
This study will test whether international drug trafficking is suitable for application of situational crime prevention. Specifically, this study seeks to locate possible opportunity reduction points in the drug trafficking process. The study has three steps. First the nature and dimension of the drug trafficking in Turkey will be analyzed with specific data provided from Turkish National Police’s archives. Second, this data will be analyzed to identify the situational factors that facilitate drug trafficking. Finally, possible means of blocking opportunities for drug trafficking will be explored.