Event
Intersections of Illicit Trafficking and Counterfeit Parts Workshop
Thursday, October 28, 2021
10:30 a.m.-4:00 p.m.
Virtual Event
On Thursday, October 28 at 10:30 a.m. ET, Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), and the Center of Advanced Life Cycle Engineering (CALCE) will co-host the Intersections of Illicit Trafficking and Counterfeit Parts Workshop, sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF). This event is free and open to the public, but RSVPs are required. If you have any questions, please email the START events team at start-events@umd.edu.
Often, differing types of criminal behavior are siloed, but as transnational criminal entities continue to replicate neoliberal business practices, they are agglomerating into polycrime entities. These polycrime entities bridge different lines of the trafficking business. Humans are trafficked for forced or illegal labor. People have been trafficked and forced to serve as caretakers of illegal cannabis plants. Mexican drug cartels have purchased 3D printers and hired engineers to develop weapons modifications, uparmor vehicles, and develop manufacturing techniques that increase the potency of various narcotics.
This workshop seeks to bring together social scientists, engineers, law enforcement, policymakers, and industry to push us out of our comfort zones to build connections and identify gaps. Individual sessions will focus on modalities of trafficking: arms trafficking and construction, wildlife trafficking, labor trafficking, and narcotics manufacturing and trafficking. The conference will end with a convocation meant to sum up the presentations and serve as an opportunity for the wider group to discuss new-found connections and overlapping priorities.
For more information and to register visit the event page at the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) website.
