Organized crime in the field of illegal trafficking of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances or their analogues as an object of criminological research

The article describes organized crime in the field of illegal trafficking of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances or their analogues as an object of criminological research. It was established that organized crime in the sphere of illegal trafficking of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances or their analogues in Ukraine is characterized by a hierarchy, a strictly and clearly organized, planned system of interconnected criminal activity of individuals, groups, syndicates, cartels, which is carried out with the division of functions, which gives reasons to consider it as a drug business, which is connected with the cultivation, production and trade of drugs for profit and constitutes the economic basis of the existence of organized crime. The main features of criminal offenses committed by organized groups and criminal organizations in the sphere of illegal circulation of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances or their analogues in Ukraine are: latency of drug business; combination of criminal offenses provided for in Ch. XIII of the Criminal Code of Ukraine with economic criminal offenses, in particular legalization (laundering) of proceeds from illegal drug trafficking with the help of established financial intermediaries and offshore jurisdictions; high level of organization of criminal formations; persistent focus on creating corrupt connections in state authorities and law enforcement agencies; transnationality; the presence of an established source for the purchase of narcotics.It has been established that the drug business consists of several interrelated stages: production, purchase or theft of drugs; delivering them to the place of sale; sale of these products by the consumer. The peculiarity of the drug business is that certain criminal acts (illegal production, smuggling and acquisition) can be both independent components and parallel, jointly interconnected subsystems of criminal activity.