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Crime Fusion
What is unique about this case is the fusion of two criminal economies.
Criminal convergence occurs when two or more illicit economies overlap in a mutually reinforcing way. This can take many forms, such as when one group diversifies its illicit revenue streams, two groups exchange one illicit commodity for another, or multiple groups share smuggling infrastructure, methods, and service providers.
Convergence enables criminals to thrive and exacerbates the impacts of the illicit economy, such as armed violence and biodiversity loss. In Southeast Asia, arms trafficking appears to be most often integrated with drug trafficking and the smuggling of contraband, such as untaxed cigarettes, fuel, alcohol or rice.
When guns are combined with wildlife trafficking, it is often to facilitate poaching, which is devastating in its own right. However, there are few documented incidents in the region where illegal guns and trafficked wildlife are traded indirectly.
This may be partly because other illegal products (i.e., undeclared goods such as drugs and cigarettes) are more fungible, easier to source and transport, and carry higher profit margins.
In high-stakes, competitive market environments, guns are more likely to be used as a means of protection and coercion for drugs and other contraband. Wildlife traffickers may not face similar market pressures.
The drug bust in North Maluku is thus a rare fusion of the two largest criminal economies in Indonesia and the Philippines.
Bird trafficking was once common in markets across the country, according to the Global Action Against Transnational Organized Crime. Since the 1970s, government crackdowns and rapid digitization have shifted the bird trade to social media platforms, e-commerce sites, courier services and digital payment systems.
A 2022 Global Initiative study on online bird trafficking in Indonesia found more than 1,000 unique advertisements for endangered birds in 600 private Facebook groups.
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