As it becomes harder to smuggle through the desert, the legitimate ports of entry become a more attractive avenue.

ECONOMIST: Corruption on the border: Assets on the other side | The

It is cheaper, according to Kurdish tradesmen, to ship bananas from Ecuador to Turkey and then smuggle them through Iraq into Iran than it is to bring them legally from nearby India or Africa.

ECONOMIST: Middle Eastern smugglers

In May 2010, two unemployed Spanish men were jailed for 12 years each following a failed attempt to smuggle 33kg (72lb) of cocaine through Southampton.

BBC: Drug traffickers targeting cruise liners, Soca says

They go through the Belgian curtain into Western Europe with the same persistence as Mexicans who smuggle themselves into the United States, their desperation intensified by the high interest rates on the money they have borrowed to get there.

ECONOMIST: The land that time forgot