The Illicit trade in alcohol: mapping strategies of crime control and banditry in Ecuador

Abstract

The following study seeks to critically assess and dissect existing narratives and agendas of crime control within the context of contraband alcohol in Ecuador by drawing upon recent measures imple-mented by the Ecuadorean Government to secure borders, bottles and the supply chain. The aim throughout the study was to present a critical reconstruction of these events situated within the frame-work of security studies, semiology, and social harms. The study navigates these various themes and their interactions with one another while engaging with the linear and core argument of this paper, namely that contraband is merely an invention of the government and corporate apparatus to justify exclusion, pursue monetary interests and push costly security solutions to contain the ‘threat’. By pointing to concrete case studies and industry practices to secure the supply chain and mitigate risk, the study concludes that associations of contraband with organised crime and a security heavy crime control agenda perpetuate the myth of crime.