Internal and international transport of drugs by postal services

Abstract

In this study we aim to analyse the causes of the proliferation of drug transportation through postal networks in the light of the legislative loopholes identified in the postal services legislation regarding effective forms of control of the content of mailings. The suitability of criminal prosecution of postal agents who, in fact, participate in the trafficking chain of drug delivery with specific acts of execution of co-perpetrators, in relation to their law prescribed duties of checking the correspondence will also be examined.
The issue will also be approached from the angle of international law and specialized literature. We will analyse the degree of compliance by the domestic legislator with the recommendations on combating this phenomenon set out in the Universal Postal Union Convention and the 1988 Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. The measures adopted by German and Spanish legislators to control postal consignments will also be studied with the purpose of identifying solutions to this problem.
Lastly, proposals will be put forward to amend domestic postal legislation, which could be categorized as necessary interference with the constitutional principle of the inviolability of the secrecy of correspondence. Such measures will help to reduce the use of this means of transportation by traffickers, but also to regulate certain obligations for postal service operators, whose failure to comply with these duties shall be susceptible of criminal liability.