Drug Trafficking by Sea
E1. Maritime security, geopolitics and riskDefinition
Maritime narcotics smuggling addressed by 1988 Vienna Convention.
The maritime smuggling of narcotics, addressed at the law-of-the-sea level by Article 108 of UNCLOS, which obliges states to cooperate in suppressing illicit traffic on the high seas. The 1988 UN Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (the Vienna Convention), particularly Article 17, sets the framework for boarding a suspect foreign vessel with flag-state consent. Enforcement runs through coast guards and navies under bilateral shiprider and ship-boarding agreements.
Source: UNCLOS Art.108; UN Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs (Vienna, 1988), Art.17