Illegal Drug Markets in Transformation: Global Dynamics and Local Configurations in Argentina

Abstract

Drug trafficking continues to occupy a central place on the global criminal agenda, driven by sustained international demand and the high profit margins it generates. Although it is a transnational phenomenon, its manifestations are far from homogeneous: they vary according to regional and national contexts, depending on the logics that structure illicit markets, the actors involved, and their connections with the State. In light of this heterogeneity, the article advocates moving beyond generalist approaches and developing situated diagnoses that account for the historical, institutional, and territorial specificities shaping the phenomenon.

To this end, the paper sets out a dual objective: on the one hand, to examine the current dynamics of the global illicit drug market, paying attention to changes in consumption patterns and trafficking routes; on the other, to analyze the Argentine case, focusing on the evolution of domestic demand and the particular forms drug trafficking takes at the local level.

The text is structured in four sections: a methodological note, a global and regional overview of drug trafficking, a description of consumption and trafficking in Argentina, and a final discussion on the need to construct contextualized interpretations as opposed to imported readings from other realities.