Pandemic in the illicit drug markets have been problems that every
city faces for the last decade. Difficulties to gain information and how the
network works are the biggest challenge for officials. With growing social
network user, Studies have been shown that with the right data, Social network
analysis can be used to track the link between individuals that are involved in
the network.
Getting the right data is difficult due to the discreetness of the
network itself; therefore the right official needs to be involved to gather
data such as:
- · ‘Street’ Ethnographic data
- · Connection of jailed drug traffickers
- · Wiretaps or police records
- · Court transcripts
- · Phone logs
- · Bank logs
Some of the data’s mentioned above can be obtained easily but I
believe information from drug traffickers behind bars is crucial to make legit
connection.
The SNA will help us to establish the link (ties) between all
individuals (nodes) that are involved (usually they belong to a certain group –
cell), how each cell communicate, venue of laboratory, the leaders in the
areas, and last but not least the top of the food chain or the ‘King Pin’.
Most important network measure will be the role of each node, where
they stand in the hierarchy and the closeness of their connection. (Density and centrality depends on data and accuracy of data)
From one example bellow, it shows that each cell is not or not likely to connect with each other, that means if one cell is compromised, the leader can start another cell without compromising the whole network.
Example of 'Illicit drug markets network map'
SNA will help police official to learn the network, identify key players, and even pin point exact location of Labs and operation.
2 comments:
What's the question you'd want an SNA to answer? There are several blog posts on this that you might have looked at to give you more insight. I would have like to see more on the rationale of using which network measures.
So, the overarching question is who is/are the kingpin(s) in the network?
It would have been to see a bit more in depth on your approach -- how would you weigh the data you propose? What would you look at first? How exactly would you identify the "kingpin"? I would imagine they would actually have a fairly low eigenvector, as they probably aren't communicating with low-level sellers.
Has this been used in the past? How effective was it?
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