Transnational cocaine trafficking: multiple data sources for network construction

Mapping transnational cocaine flows remains challenging due to fragmented and unreliable datasets, limiting understanding of trafficking structures. To address this, we integrate two distinct sources–the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Individual Drug Seizures and the United States’ International Narcotics Control Strategy Reports–to construct and compare 9 years of global cocaine trafficking networks. Using social network analysis, we replicate and extend previous appraoches to assess how data integration mitigates or amplifies reportng biases. Our findings show that merging these datasets enhances network cohesion, identifies overlooked transit hubs, and clarifies countries’ roles in trafficking. However, dataset limitations and geopolitical biases distort observed flows, necessitating careful interpretation. We advocate for broader data supplementation, including regional intelligence briefs and local field reports, and recommend weighted and multiplex network approaches to better capture trafficking complexities and improve the empirical foundations of illicit drug flow research.