The socio-material cultures of global crime: artefacts and infrastructures in the context of drug smuggling

This chapter deals explicitly with the socio-material cultures associated with global crime. It does so to address the lack of previous research into the materialities of networked criminal activity on the global scale, where the predominant focus has been on the actions of criminal actors such as individuals and organizations. The chapter asserts that the artefacts and material infrastructures of global crime form a critical role in the perpetration of illicit activities. In doing so the chapter builds on multidisciplinary work on the nonhuman turn in the cultural and social sciences. Its specific focus is on the actions of drug smuggling networks where artefacts such as freight shipments and distributive infrastructures of containerization play a fundamental part in smuggling activities. To examine these notions in greater empirical depth its central locus is an example of 1.4 tonnes of compressed cocaine disguised as wooden shipping pallets.