80% of Illegal Drugs are Transported by Drug Smugglers Using Fake Passports
It’s an estimated $400 billion per year industry aided by identity fraud, as international drug smugglers use fake passports and ID cards to support and expand their trade.
By air, road, rail and sea, the global traffic in illegal drugs works 24 hours per day, bringing narcotics to millions of consumers in major cities, small towns, villages and isolated homes across the world. According to the United Nations, the illegals drugs business is estimated to be worth $400 billion per year and, regardless of state of the globe’s economy, it continues to grow, leaving a trail of misery, hardship, and violence in its wake.
Identity fraud is a well-established enabler of this trade. As far back as 1981, and in 80% of discovered cases, international drug smugglers were using fake passports and ID cards to support their businesses; using them to travel from remote production centers to lucrative urban markets, send bulk shipments through vulnerable ports of entry, launder billions in illegal cash into clean, invisible assets, and stay out of reach of law enforcement.
Identity Fraud — Helping Drug Traffickers to Expand Their Industry
Drug smugglers use fraudulent passports and ID cards in a multitude of ways:
- To move drugs from production centers to the end-user
- To cross borders to organize resources, recruit group members and scout new markets
- To create bank accounts to launder money and buy legal assets
- To extort victims and gain access to secret information
- To rent safehouses, hire vehicles and set up shell companies
- To hide from identification and evade law enforcement
Defeating Identity Document Fraud Starts by Designing Stronger, Safer Identity Documents
Drug smugglers make great use of fake or fraudulent identity documents, sometimes creating them on an industrial scale — generating thousands of altered, forged and counterfeited documents that allow them to blend in, cross borders and carry out their illegal activities. But it doesn’t have to be like that. The fact is, identity fraud becomes easier for drug smugglers when the security of identity documents is insufficient, out of date, or incorrectly utilized.
Criminals adapt quickly, seeking weaknesses in document security and exploiting all the gaps and loopholes they can find or create. The only way to defeat their intentions is to stay one step ahead. This means that apart from a secure identity document enrollment and issuance process, identity documents must employ the newest security features, adapt a layered security approach and embed security into the heart of every document’s design. It also means that redeploying old and obsolete technology and security features when the templates for a country’s passports and identity cards are renewed — typically every ten years — is not enough to defeat the forgers and counterfeiters. Reusing out of date security can give criminals and terrorists open access to an individual’s identity.
HID — the Award-Winning Leaders in Identity Document Design And Security
HID sets the gold standard in identity document design and security. Passports, identity cards, driving licenses and all types of official government documentation made better, stronger and more secure through the power of award-winning design:
- 2024 Red Dot Design Award winner — ePassport, Kingdom of Bahrain
- 2024 IF Design Award winner — ePassport, Kingdom of Bahrain
- 2024 High Security Printing Award winner — Best ePassport, Kingdom of Bahrain
- 2023 London Design Award winner – Best ePassport, Kingdom of Bahrain
- 2021 High Security Printing Award winner — Best ePassport, Estonia
- 2021 High Security Printing Award winner — Best new Identity Document, Argentina
- 2020 High Security Printing Award winner — Best ePassport, Malta
- 2019 High Security Printing Award winner — Best ePassport, Tanzania
- 2016 High Security Printing Award winner — Best new ID card, Irish Passport Card
- 2014 High Security Printing Award winner — Best ePassport, Ireland