CRIMINAL ABUSE OF ICT FOR ILLEGAL DRUG ACTIVITIES

With the advancement and development of information systems and communication technologies, a large increase in abuse has been recorded in all possible sectors, both state and criminal abuse related to illicit drugs, which is constantly increasing. It seems that a big "taboo topic" is revealing the weaknesses of IT systems, given that public institutions are reluctant to say that their systems have more flaws than the public could imagine, so the abuse is progressing in the right direction. It would be said that IT systems make it easier for criminals to commit crimes.

In this part, we will pay special attention to the abuse related to illicit drugs.It is quite certain that drug abuse is one of the biggest spheres of crime, in which organization and professionalism are at a very high level. Criminal offenses consist in unauthorized production, processing, sale, and purchase.

The abuse of communication systems has not only developed the communication of criminals and the possibility of fast trade accounts, which are also part of communication technologies.

This is due to the ease with which today you can access various services offered by the Internet such as e-commerce, online banking, and many other opportunities, which are evolving more and more every day, and thus their abuse.

Thus, IT systems, in addition to their advantages, are beginning to develop modern crime, where we are faced with new challenges, which cannot be faced through traditional techniques and tools.

As a necessary consequence of the digital age and the application of information technology in all spheres of social life, computer crime consists of all forms of criminal behavior that are a consequence of mass abuse of information systems. Information systems are only a means through which a crime is committed, while the crime itself and its elucidation and capture of perpetrators require much more than the information systems themselves.

Despite the enormous efforts made by each country, individually or jointly, through action through the UN, the World Health Organization, Interpol and other NGO organizations dealing with these issues for the purpose of preventive detection and assistance to police and other government agencies, drug abuse crime remains and still as one of the greatest enemies of modern man.

Unauthorized trafficking in narcotics is a crime that contains a number of criminal acts, while at the international level it is one of the most common activities of organized crime in relation to the abuse of narcotics, three accompanying glances dominate. Primary, secondary and tertiary. Primary crime refers to the production, processing, purchase, sale, export and distribution of drugs. Secondary refers to crimes committed under the influence of drugs or during an abstinence crisis.

The tertiary form is the most socially dangerous because it indicates that the development of technology has influenced the degree of organization and marketing of narcotics is criminally important, so the development of technology has led to the transfer of narcotics from the street to the virtual world.

Drug traffickers use IT systems to establish and maintaining their criminal network for the sale and purchase of narcotic substances.

The term internet sale of narcotics refers primarily to websites that facilitate the sale of psychoactive substances. However, as the advancement of information systems and means of communication has made progress for abuse, progress has also been made in detecting such criminal networks, through the same systems, so that the Internet is an important means of gathering information.

Computer crime is a relatively new innovation in police circles, but also very important, given that with the advancement of information systems, the development of all types of crime is on the rise. To help state bodies in the fight against organized crime of this kind, the NGO will try to act preventively and provide the necessary information, helping its experts, members of the NGO, who are specialists in various fields, in this case, criminologists, cybercrime experts, forensic analysts. Attention is focused on the danger posed by covert drug markets on the darknet.

As an NGO, we will act to prevent and educate young people, pointing out the dangers of the dark internet and the consequences of drug use, we will raise the awareness of the community and the individual.

The cooperation of state institutions and other NGOs is very important, in order to get involved in projects and jointly point out the dangers of information systems in terms of developing an organized network for the marketing of narcotics, as well as projects that will point out all the dangers It is carried out.

Only by joint action and cooperation of all institutions and non-governmental organizations, concrete results can be reached.

By Sanela Nikolic, Police Officer, Crime Analyst

IPO Headquarters - Coordination Director