Google believes that technology has the power to expose and dismantle global criminal networks and has decided to take action. They have organized a forum in the United States to help the authorities and different civil organizations to find a solution to fight the different criminal organizations.

The company  explained that violent illicit networks, which include organized crime, narcotics, terrorism and cyber crime, represent a trillion dollar problem that affects every society in the world and takes thousands of innocent lives each year.

The search engine mentioned Mexico’s case in which in only 5 years 50,000 people have died as a result of the war for territory between the rival drug cartels. Google is convinced that these violent illicit networks have a devastating and financial impact on every nation.

Google is willing to help find solutions for humanity’s biggest problems; recently the company launched Google Ideas which is a “think/do tank that convenes unorthodox stakeholders, commission’s research, and seeds initiatives to explore the role that technology can play in tackling some of the toughest human challenges.”

Google Ideas first focused on counter-radicalization; last year they organized the Summit Against Violent Extremism to try facing this problem. Which had pretty good results, the most important product that came out of this summit is called Against Violent extremism, which is a “ network of former violent extremists, survivors of violent extremism, NGOs, academics, think tanks, and private sector executives who share a common goal: to prevent youth from committing violence.”

The internet giant stated: “Violent extremism is one of the world’s most significant unanswered challenges, from the gangs of San Salvador to the violent Islamist extremists of Quetta to far-right fascists around the world who constitute the violent white power movement.”

Now  Google Ideas is focusing on violent illicit networks, the search engine is trying to find a solution to dismantle and expose the different criminal organizations. In the past months Google has been working with people fighting on the front line in order to understand how these criminal organizations really function.

The company firmly believes that “as illicit networks grow in scope and complexity, society’s strategy to reduce their negative impact must draw on the tremendous power of technology.” That’s why Google, in partnership with the Council on Foreign Relations and the Tribeca Film Festival, organized “Illicit Networks: Forces In Opposition.” Google explained that “too often illicit networks are seen only in the silos of those who study them. This summit aims to break down those silos by bringing together a full-range of stakeholders, from survivors of organ trafficking, sex trafficking and forced labor to government officials, dozens of engineers, tech leaders and product managers from Google and beyond.”

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A new study shows that nearly 9% of the American population use illegal drugs, including abuse of prescription drugs and regular use of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens or inhalants. According to the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, marijuana was the most popular drug.

There are 17.4 million regular users — amounting to 6.9 percent of the population compared to 5.8 percent in 2007. USNews.com reported that nearly half of kids between 12 and 17 claimed it would be “fairly easy” or “very easy” to acquire marijuana, according to the survey.

In a statement, the US director of national drug control policy, Gil Kerlikowske, called the survey result a sign of “unacceptable levels” in the US. Around 7 million people abused psychotherapeutic drugs (including painkillers and sedatives) last year while 1.2 million used hallucinogens. These levels have been steady in the last few years.

The study was not all bad news. As in previous years, 1.5 million use cocaine but it’s a drop of nearly a million since 2006. Other hard drugs such as Methamphetamine have also  seen a drop in regular users.

What is worrying researcher is the growth in young users — the number of 18 to 25-year-olds who use drug have risen from 19.6% in 2008 to 21.5% in the 2010 survey. The hike is considered to be linked to increased marijuana use and Kerlikowske says to CNN that states who allow medical marijuana could be fueling this development.

“Emerging research reveals potential links between state laws permitting access to smoked medical marijuana and higher rates of marijuana use,” reports CNN. Kerlikowske continues: “I urge every family – but particularly those in states targeted by pro-drug political campaigns – to redouble their efforts to shield young people from serious harm by educating them about the real health and safety consequences caused by illegal drug use.”

Parental control could however prove difficult, as USNews.com reveals how surveyed parents fared pretty bad when it came to guessing their children’s use of drugs or alcohol. In the anonymous survey, 9.5% of parents said their teenagers smoked marijuana while 17% of the teens admitted to their use.

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The head of Russia’s drug control service (FSKN) Viktor Ivanov recently slammed the Central European countries as well as NATO for their failure to effectively address the explosion of drug-trafficking and drug related crime since 2001. Mr Ivanov trace the source of the problem back to Afghanistan and their poppy farmers who produce 90% of the pure heroin worldwide. A UN resolution has previously described the narcotics flow from the Central Asian country as a threat to international peace and stability, according to the Russian news channel RT.

Mr Ivanov was outspoken about the Russian impatience with the international community in what he categorized as a lack of “an appropriate reaction” from NATO whom he holds responsible for controlling the war-torn country’s heroin situation. The reason for Russia’s fury can be found in the dramatic surge in heroin related deaths in their country since US forces invaded Afghanistan almost 10 years ago. In October last year, the head of FSKN explained to the Carnegie Moscow Center that although the amount of opium harvested in 2010 was half the amount produces the previous year, it is still twenty times higher than it was before the invasion. The decline in last years production, Ivanov attributes to ‘climate factors’ and crop disease rather than the eradication efforts. He based his conclusion on the fact that the number of acres planted had not changed since the previous year, according to RT.

The consequences of the heavy production in Afghanistan has been unprecedented for Russia. According to FSKN, 549 tons of heroin is consumed in Russia – compared to 212 tons in North America and 711 tons in Europe which have nearly four and over five times as big a population respectively. Mr Ivanov revealed that “at least 30.000 young Russian lives” are lost each year to heroin addiction and it is estimated that an annually 100.000 people worldwide die from consuming the Afghan opiates.

On top of this, Ivanov is gravely concerned about the rapid expansion of the Central Asian drug cartels who consider Russia a vast market for drug-trafficking. The Russian war on drugs have revealed a ‘mafia structure’ in the cartels which uses simplified visa rules and cargo deliveries for Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) citizens. Ivanov blames poor migration control as one of the main factors hampering the fight against drug trafficking inside of Russia. But his main critique is that the root cause of Russia’s national problem is far from being addressed adequately internationally.

One of the points is that farmers are expected to join the Taliban if efforts are made to destroy poppy crops. Mr Ivanov rejects this explanation. “When the US says you can’t deprive farmers of their livelihood, it actually sends a message to the Afghan leadership as well, saying they shouldn’t do it because, first, this will destroy people’s livelihoods and, second, you push farmers into the hands of the Taliban,” Ivanov told RT in an interview. “I think this is merely an excuse.”

The Russian frustration with NATO’s efforts in Afghanistan is also aimed at the coalition members. “The taxpayers of the coalition countries invested more than $300 billion into resolving the Afghan problem,” Ivanov argues. “In exchange, they received 5,000 tons of heroin, half of which landed in their stomachs, while global criminal and terrorist networks earned $1 trillion.”

In response to Russia’s criticism, Afghan Counter Narcotics Minister Zazar Ahmad Osmani told the RT “Afghanistan only produces opium, but you need additives, or precursors, to turn it into heroin, up to 1300 tons. Afghanistan does not produce them. Where do they come from? Obviously, there’s an international network trafficking these precursors. That’s why we say that the drug problem is not localized in Afghanistan – it’s international. When we say that millions of Russians die from drugs… 960,000 Afghans are addicted too.”

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In October last year, a 20-year-old student was sworn in as police chief of Praxedis Guadalupe Guerrero, a township of only 8.500 people but know as one of the most violent places in the country. The border town is victim of the intense drug war that plagues several areas of Mexico but which is especially present around the northern borders as well as some pacific states. Marisol Valles Garcia, who was studying for a criminology degree, was allegedly given the position because “she was the only person to accept,” according to an official.

Her task was difficult from the beginning. Alongside 12 police officers, Valles intended to confront narco-gangsters who had been battling for control over the town’s single highway. The violence had seen bodies piling up around the region and everything from police officers to a former mayer had been killed – one of Valles predecessors had even been decapitated.

The young woman attracted worldwide attention as the bravest woman in Mexico and claimed that she did not carry a gun or wear a uniform to avoid provoking the drug gangs that operated in the area. She also said she would leave major crimes to bigger authorities and when asked why she had taken the position, she told the BBC that she took the role despite the risks involved because she felt Mexican citizens had a responsibility to try to improve security.

The city of Praxedis is close to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico’s most violent city, where more than 3.000 people were killed in drug-related violence in 2010 alone, according to the BBC. The brutality of the region is due to the lucrative smuggling routes into the US, and the power of the cartels grew as the US stepped up anti-narcotics efforts. It is estimated that as much as 90% of the cocaine consumed in the US arrives through Mexico.

Marisol Valles Garcia went missing after having ask for a three-day leave to take care of her baby son – when she didn’t show up for work, the mayor of Praxedis, G. Guerrero, fired her, according to the New York Times.

After some initial speculation of her whereabouts, it turned out that Valles and her family had crossed the bridge into El Paso and was now seeking asylum in the US after apparently having received death threats. The US Customs and Immigration Enforcement agency (ICE) confirmed that Ms Valles was in the country; “She will have the opportunity to present the facts of her case before an impartial immigration judge,” and ICE official told Reuters. The town officials, however, had been curiously unalarmed by their police chief fleeing the country, a position which Gustavo de la Rosa Hickerson, a state human rights ombudsman, has criticized as an “act of abandonment” to the New York Times.

Despite Ms Valles dismissal, it is hard to blame her for her actions. When the Mexican government unveiled a new database which catalogues murders presumed to be linked to organized crime, it listed a total of 34.612 people having been killed over the past four years in drug-related violence. 2010 was especially bloody with 15.273 murders alone.

Many Mexicans are starting to doubt President Felipe Calderon’s strategy towards the illegal drugs trade because violence have escalated ever since the crackdown on the cartels began in 2006.

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