Economic Globalization and the Transnational Crime of Drug Trafficking and Lottery Scamming
Summary
Chapter 4 utilizes two important dimensions of economic globalization, financial liberalization, and the increase in communication and transportation technologies, to show some of the ways in which Jamaica’s drug traffickers and lottery scammers have capitalized on the liberalizing forces of this process. The author claims that drug trafficking and lottery scamming are transnational crime problems affecting people and the state, and concludes with a discussion on major prevention and repression strategies used by Jamaican authorities to counter these crimes.
Introduction
Economic globalization refers to the interconnection of global economies due to the growth in cross-border trade, the flow of capital and the rapid diffusion of technologies. As Held et al. (1999) explains it, “globalization is a process or set of processes which embodies a transformation in the spatial organization of social relations and transactions...” (Held et al. 1999, 16). This chapter uses two dimensions of economic globalization, financial liberalization and the increase in communication and transportation technologies to demonstrate some of the ways in which Jamaica’s drug traffickers and lottery scammers have capitalized on the liberalizing forces of this process. It concludes with a discussion on the major prevention and repression strategies used to counter these crimes.
The proliferation of lottery scams and the trafficking of drugs are significant problems, which have caused widespread concern for many authorities. Increasingly, global processes are facilitating varying aspects of these transnational crimes. The Jamaica-USA lottery scams remain a striking example of how criminals have used this transborder crime to defraud nationals. Notwithstanding this, estimates indicate that up to 92 percent of lottery frauds are underreported in the U.S. because victims are normally too embarrassed to seek assistance from law enforcers (McFadden 2012). This industry ranks among the most profitable illegal industries and is rivaling other transnational criminal activities in Jamaica with estimates of between US$300 million to 1 billion being defrauded by Jamaican scammers annually (Walker 2012; Allen 2012).
Likewise, global drug trafficking is estimated to be worth US$400 billion (UNODC 2005) and Jamaican traffickers remain significant players in the transshipment of cocaine and the production of marijuana for sale to overseas markets. Since February 2015, the Jamaican authorities have decriminalized marijuana for medicinal and personal purposes. Hence, individuals will be ticketed and fined for possession of less than two ounces of marijuana although this will not attract a criminal record. Nevertheless, marijuana is still an illegal product in Jamaica and the trafficking of large quantities of marijuana remains a criminal violation. This is in accordance with Jamaica’s international obligation under the United Nations International Drug Conventions which currently prohibits full legalization of marijuana.
The subsequent section briefly assesses the nature of Jamaica’s drug trafficking and lottery scamming and demonstrates that both are transnational crime problems affecting people and the state.
Drug Trafficking
Jamaica’s drug trafficking exemplifies the features of transnational crime. Criminal gangs command and control the transshipment of cocaine through Jamaica’s waters destined for markets in the U.S. and the UK; orchestrate the transportation and distribution to high-consumption markets; create a bartering system to exchange drugs for guns, which fuels the country’s homicide rate; develop synergies and networks with foreign-based criminals to execute the deployment of drug shipments, violate states’ borders to traffic drugs; and are fundamentally motivated by the desire to generate huge financial nontaxable profits through their illegal drug enterprise.
An important route for smuggling drugs into the U.S., Jamaica is strategically utilized as a transshipment hub for South American cocaine. As a Caribbean island state, located geographically almost midway between North and South America, its position is ideal for trafficking exploits. It is also a major marijuana production and trafficking state although the trafficking of marijuana has been relatively devoid of criminal networks since such networks prefer cocaine trafficking due to its compactness and potential for greater financial profits (INCB 2014; Haughton 2011; Griffith 1997; Vasciannie 1997).
The Caribbean Sea is the most frequently used conduit by Jamaican traffickers for the transportation of illicit drugs to foreign markets. The transportation of drugs among Caribbean states via road networks is almost impossible, since most Anglophone Caribbean island states are bordered by the sea and not by land. Yet, whether by land or sea, intra-Caribbean trafficking of drugs are infrequent as Jamaican traffickers conduct cost-benefit analysis and discover that consumption markets are larger in developed countries than in neighboring Caribbean states. Further, there is the added advantage for Jamaican traffickers of benefiting from the differences in U.S. and UK currency exchange rates. Hence, a large consumption market and strong foreign currencies significantly increase illicit drug profits for traffickers. For instance, Jamaican sensimilla fetches a retail price of between US$900 to US$6000 per pound, depending on the location in the U.S. The mid-west and north east region fetch higher retail prices as they are further away from the Caribbean (ONDCP 2010). Such prices would not be generated from marijuana sales in the Caribbean region due to its availability and proximity to major marijuana production countries.
Not only do Jamaican drug traffickers aim to maximize profits but they also seek to protect their industry from external disruptions. One important strategy traffickers frequently adopt to respond to increased law enforcement to counter drug efforts is to transform their modes of trafficking. In the late 1970s, traffickers transported drugs concealed in suitcases on aircrafts. Since the mid-1980s, they have shifted to the use of the sea and to a small extent human conduits. The use of human drug couriers serves as a way of testing border security systems as only small quantities of cocaine pellets can be transported through this mechanism. As Klein et al (2004) put it, “the total volume of each courier is measured at best in hundred grams” (Klein et al 2004, 37). Yet, the shift from reliance on air transportation to maritime ones was intended to capitalize on the weak maritime policing capabilities of law enforcers in the Caribbean waters. Currently, traffickers have transformed their maritime trafficking modes by rotating between the use of go-fast vessels, yachts, submersibles, and semi-submersible vessels to traffic their illicit drugs. Capitalizing on improvements in conveyance technology, since 2013, the use of submersibles and semi-submersibles is increasing, with a greater likelihood of evading detection since these vessels travel under water and are not easily visible from the surface.
Notwithstanding all of these, drug trafficking is not the only transnational crime problem that confronts Jamaican authorities. Since 2006, lottery scamming and its associated societal ills were added to Jamaica’s existing transborder problems. Lottery scamming is easier to execute than drug trafficking, as the product is intangible; it is not the trafficking of cocaine or marijuana, but rather, mainly involves the use of persuasive communication to trick vulnerable victims to part with their cash; but neither cash nor persuasion by themselves is illegal. For this reason, it became difficult to apprehend scammers as compared to drug traffickers.
Lottery Scamming
Lottery scamming is not new but is another transnational crime problem affecting Jamaica. Globally, it has existed in varying forms for a very long time. As such, scammers have long used e-mail technology to inform targets of their huge winnings and have requested information, processing fees, and monies to cover taxes from their victims. Such operations have formed the basis of the emerging proliferation of the transnational problems of lotto scamming and identity theft. However, the lottery scamming problem is relatively new for Jamaica. Prior to 2006, Jamaican authorities did not face this problem. The major transborder criminal activities on which Jamaica authorities were focused, concerned drugs and human trafficking, gun-related crimes, and homicides.
The Jamaican scammers have tailored their scamming strategies to resonate with their targets. Lottery scammers elsewhere in the world have opted to use e-mail technology to communicate with their targets. However, the Jamaican scammers have used telephones to convince their targets to send money to cover processing costs in order to claim their winnings. A more personalized strategy, this approach has resonated well with their targets, many of whom are elderly persons, 70 years and older. This novel approach has in some way provided the farce of familiarity with the persons conversing at the other end, and in some regard has provided threats, coercion, and or friendliness in real time. Further, elderly persons are more likely to answer their telephones much faster than they are likely to be checking or responding to their e-mails.
Jamaica’s lottery scam takes two main forms. First, there is the family-owned type. This type is headed by one person with some tasks executed by other family members. However, it is mainly a one-man operation and is less structured and diffused. Second, is the form which patterns a call-center type of operation in which a lottery scammer commands and controls multiple employees who operate from the same location or different locations. In this assembly line type operation, the employees are given target lists and they make calls simultaneously to the U.S.-based persons on the list. The type of methods used to obtain compliance from their targets depends on the personality of the employee who is making the call. Some employees use gentle persuasion which plays on the greed of their targets. Others start that way but transform their strategy by using intimidation, hence obtaining compliance through breeding fear in their victims. Further, in some cases, scammers know that they are working with persons who have been victims previously, so some opt to pose as an investigating government agency or a company and hence promise to recover the victims’ money. However, victims are told that a recovery fee which is usually smaller than the previous amount scammed is required in order to expedite the process. The U.S. nationals who fall for this story are scammed twice because both callers are normally working for the same scammer. This process is known as double scamming and these scammers are referred to as re-loaders (USA’s Federal Trade Commission 2012).
At its outset, the lottery scamming industry was located predominantly in western Jamaica, and by 2012, U.S. authorities estimate that 30,000 Americans have been scammed through this cross-border criminal activity. However, the proliferation of scamming activities fueled by abnormally high profits of up to US$120,000 per week ensured its dissemination to other town centers in Jamaica (Kossow 2011). Jamaican law enforcers have argued that scamming is currently an island-wide problem with significant incidences occurring in the satellite parishes of St. James, St. Catherine, Clarendon, and Portland. The age profile of the Jamaican scammers ranges between 25 and 45 years, although persons as young as 14 to 16 have been recruited to carry out scamming activities. In the past two years, a recent trend is that younger persons are getting involved in the trade. Jamaican authorities have indicated that older players in the industry have begun a process of recruitment from among high school students. These students are being used to extol monies from foreigners and have received attractive remuneration for their involvement.
Lottery scamming is a serious problem which requires immediate and special attention. Law enforcers have argued that conflict between varying scammers operating in different sections of the island over the master-list has resulted in the gruesome murder of some Jamaicans. The Jamaican law enforcers have theorized that lottery fraud conflicts have accounted for 40 percent of Jamaica’s homicides (McFadden 2012). In 2012, Jamaica’s homicide rate was 1,087 (Jamaican Constabulary Force 2013). Jamaica’s Minister of National Security, Peter Bunting, has argued that lottery scamming presents a “clear and present danger” to the Jamaican society, threatening call center jobs, tourism, and the state’s international reputation (Titus 2012).
The proliferation of scamming activities is fueled by globalization. Global processes have facilitated Jamaica’s lottery scams by providing the opportunity for scammers to gain access to foreign nationals whom they deceive with the claim of million dollar winnings to which taxes must be paid. Likewise, the exploitation of global processes has also provided increasing prospects for traffickers to extend their transnational illicit drug trade.
Drug Trafficking, Lottery Scamming, and Economic Globalization
The main drivers of economic globalization utilized by Jamaican scammers and drug traffickers are the increases in communication and transportation technologies and the liberalization of the financial sector. The shrinking of time and space, a feature of globalization has facilitated the lottery scamming activities. Global processes such as more efficient communication mechanisms are utilized by criminals in the dissemination of information on potential “scammees.” A network of criminals has developed master-lists outlining information on persons to be targeted, many of whom are not geographically present in the same locality. These master-lists outline names, addresses, family members’ contact details, and banking information of the potential targets. In the U.S., these master-lists are referred to as the sucker-lists because they outline the information of persons who have been prior victims of telemarketing fraud. A significant trend found by the United States’ Federal Trade Commission is that previous victims of such frauds are targeted in lottery scams. Most persons documented in these lists are U.S. nationals who are residents in the United States. However, telephone communication has reduced the geographical distance between the Jamaican scammers and their targets.
The increases in communication technology have witnessed the widespread availability of computer and telephone technology in Jamaica. Such technologies are further facilitated by access to cost-effective internet services and disposable pay-as-you-go mobile phones. Within the past three years, the accessing of unlimited number of minutes through special overseas low-cost telephone plans provided by mobile telephone providers have benefited Jamaican citizens—law-abiding ones as well as criminals, such as traffickers and lottery scammers. Greater access to the internet and to cost-effective disposable phones have been exploited by criminals to finalize scamming and drug trafficking deals. In 2002, there were 21 internet service providers and 100,000 internet users. By 2013, 54 percent of Jamaica’s population were internet users, that is, there were 1,581,100 users island-wide (Internet World Statistics 2014). Jamaica also has a state-of-the-art telecommunications infrastructure with extended island-wide fiber ring, and multiple off-island sub-sea links thereby providing constant global connectivity (JAMPRO 2015).
Computers with internet access are used to transfer sections of the master-list from one scammer to another. The transfer of parts of the master-list is itself a lucrative business, as this information is derived at a cost to the scammer who wants to access this list. Perhaps the most striking aspect of this feature is the manner by which scammers have used computers to access the exact location of their targets’ homes. In this regard, intimidating tactics are utilized to frighten targets into sending a continuous flow of cash transfers to scammers. By providing targets with certain identifiers outside their homes, scammers have indicated to targets that they are under surveillance. This tactic plays on the fear of their targets thereby increasing their insecurity. For example, they frighten victims into believing that bad things would happen to their families or friends if they refuse to comply with their commands. Scammers have also indicated to their targets that they should not divulge their winnings to their children or other members of their families. In such situations, noncoercive tactics are used, and the targets are made to believe that their families will deprive them of their winnings. Hence, they become very guarded about telling their loved ones about their telephone conversations with the scammers.
Drug traffickers have also capitalized on the use of technology to further their transborder trafficking of drugs. Transportation technologies in the form of go-fast vessels and more recently the use of submersibles and semi-submersibles have been used to transport drugs in Caribbean waters. Go-fast vessels are called “work horses” among Jamaican drug traffickers because they have refueling capacities, a high success rate in completing drug runs, and account for approximately 80 percent of the estimated 100 metric tons of cocaine that Jamaica transships annually (Paulin 2004). The use of submersibles and semi-submersibles reflects a shift in traffickers’ transportation mode in response to increased sea patrols by law enforcers. These vessels are expensive and difficult to detect by law enforcers since they travel under the water’s surface. Yet, these could only be exploited by traffickers given the advances in the global transportation technology.
Financial liberalization refers to freeing up of state control over banking activities and hence this reform has witnessed the establishment of a number of financial entities nationally. There are over 40 financial entities operating in Jamaica, including a central bank, development finance banks, commercial banks, trust companies, merchant banks, building societies, insurance companies, people’s cooperative banks, financial houses, and credit unions. Globalization heralded competition among these financial entities in increasing their customer base and attracting higher deposits. By the mid-1980s, the dictates of global forces coupled with national economic policies of increased monetary and tighter credit policies, aimed to stimulate money supply in times of abundance and to limit credit to restrict money supply and hence inflation. Yet, these policies ultimately reduced the profits generated by financial entities due to their heavy reliance on the interest from credit extended to their customers. Jamaica’s decision in the 1990s to liberalize both its foreign exchange regulations and trade barriers in order to increase its foreign direct investments also provided drug trafficking and money laundering opportunities. With a loosened foreign exchange market, scope was created for an informal black market inclusive of drug traffickers involved in the trading of foreign currencies at a higher rate than those offered by banks. This practice added increased pressure on legitimate financial institutions depriving them of revenues from the foreign currency markets (Haughton 2011). Likewise, the increase in financial entities in Jamaica and the absence of certain laws in the 1980s and early 1990s meant that it was easier for drug traffickers to launder their drug proceeds among varying entities, many of whom were in competition with each other to attract more customers and larger deposits.
Financial liberalization has supported easier movement of money derived from illicit activities (Andreas 2002). Jamaican lottery scammers and drug traffickers have used this process to obtain and launder funds they receive from their illicit activities. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission noted that money transfers are the payment method of choice for scammers, accounting for over 44 percent of the cases that the Commission receives (Kossow 2011). Scammers have used money transfer entities to receive monies from their victims who reside in the U.S. So large and frequent are the transfer of funds from U.S. victims that some Jamaican scammers have embarked on a process of recruiting collectors. These collectors are highly compensated for minimum efforts. They are merely required to provide the scammers with their personal information so that targets can transfer the money directly to them. Therefore, the collectors’ substantive responsibility is to collect the money from the cambio or money transfer agency and deliver it to the scammers. This process has been developed by the scammers in order to circumvent undue attention and detection by law enforcers. Such a strategy became important for the scammers because money transfer agencies are required under Jamaican law to report suspicious transactions in keeping with Article 6 of the Money Laundering Act. Frequent collection of large sums of foreign transfers would attract attention thereby subjecting them to be scrutinized in accordance with the Money Laundering Act.
Given the facilitating forces of globalization, the Jamaican state has developed a number of strategies to curtail the flow of drugs and the transborder flow of capital derived through lottery scamming.
Major Prevention and Repression Strategies
Lottery Scamming
In 2009, the Jamaica-USA task force known as Jamaica Operations Linked to Telemarketing (JOLT) was established with the specific responsibility of curbing lottery scamming activities. JOLT operation involves information and resource-sharing between Jamaica and the United States. It conducts surveillance operations and embarks on the interviewing of victims in building a case against the Jamaican lottery scammers. Further, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency liaises with the Jamaican authorities to conduct investigations and make arrests. This cooperative arrangement has conducted 400 investigations which resulted in 115 arrests up to April 2012. It has also confiscated US$1.1 million since its inception. In May 2012, Jamaican law enforcers detained 22 persons who were alleged to be involved in the Jamaica-USA lottery scams. They have also searched eight homes in Montego Bay, Jamaica (McFadden 2012). Since 2015, at least two Jamaicans have been extradited to face lottery scamming charges in the U.S.
The USA’s Federal Trade Commission organized a workshop from 2 to 3 May, 2011, designed to ascertain strategies to curb lottery scamming. This seminar was held in Chicago and it brought varying stakeholders from government agencies, companies, and money transfer service providers in a brainstorming session on ways forward and additional efforts that can be made to reduce lottery frauds. The USA’s Federal Trade Commission has also embarked on educating the public about lottery frauds (Kossow 2011). One important way that it does this is through its updated website on lottery fraud stories and ways to identify scams. For instance, its article on “Spotting an Impostor: Scammers Pose as Friends, Family, and Government Agencies” is one such example. These initiatives may also assist Jamaican law enforcers in addressing the lottery scamming problem that they face, as the more knowledgeable U.S. nationals are about this problem, the less likely it is that they will be scammed into sending money to Jamaican criminals who are targeting them.
Another important mechanism used to curb Jamaica’s lottery scams involves the entry of such cases into a database which is available to local and foreign law enforcers. Created by the USA’s Federal Trade Commission, the Consumer Sentinel Network database provides access to law enforcement agencies investigating cross-border telemarketing frauds. Where necessary, Jamaican law enforcers who are investigating lottery frauds may utilize this database to obtain information.
The Jamaican government is concerned about the reputational damage that this lottery scamming activity may present for Jamaica in the eyes of the U.S., a major trading partner and the country from which it receives a significant number of tourists to the island. Hence, a collaborative interministerial initiative, involving Jamaica’s Ministry of National Security and the Ministry of Tourism, to undertake a national public education campaign in sensitizing Jamaicans about the ills of lottery scamming, has been undertaken by the Ministry of National Security. Likewise, an interministerial task force, including Jamaica’s Ministries of Technology and Education, utilized a campaign awareness strategy, which targets high school students with a specific emphasis on institutions in Western Jamaica. Lotto scammers have begun to recruit high school students to engage in the lottery scams. This measure is aimed at reducing educational institutions as the breeding ground for the recruitment of youngsters into this illicit transborder criminal activity. Further, the Jamaican authorities instituted a media campaign in the U.S. in an attempt to restore Jamaica’s image (Reynolds 2012)
Located in the United States, the victims of Jamaica’s cross-border lottery scams appear removed from the process in such a way that this illicit activity presents the illusion of a victimless crime. Sensitization campaigns may therefore portray real representation of the life and loss that these victims suffer in an attempt to create greater levels of intolerance in the society against lottery frauds. It may highlight the case of the 72-year-old retired bookkeeper from New Jersey, U.S., who committed suicide after losing her life savings of US$248,000 to Jamaican lottery scammers in 2007 (McFadden 2012). Such heart-wrenching accounts will emphasize the pain and loss experienced by the elderly whose vulnerabilities allow them to be lured into a scheme for the prospect of quick money only to lose all they have, with no prospect for recovery and no visible hope, and hence no reason for living.
In 2013, Jamaica passed the Law Reform (Fraudulent Transactions) Special Provisions Act to suppress lottery scamming. Part II of this Act makes it an offence to obtain property by false pretense; to invite a person to visit Jamaica by false pretense; to intimidate or threaten a person involved in a criminal investigation; and to use premises and devices to transfer or transport money or for any purposes which constitute an offence under the Law Reform (Fraudulent Transactions) Special Provisions Act (Part II, Law Reform (Fraudulent Transactions) Special Provisions Act 2013). Section 10 (2) makes it clear that it is an offence for persons to possess information which may be used in scamming activities. It stipulates:
A person commits an offence where that person transmits, makes available, distributes, sells or offers for sale, identity information of any other person, or has it in his possession in circumstances giving rise to a reasonable inference that the information has been used or is intended to be used to commit an offence under this Act or any other law (Section 10 (2) of the Law Reform (Fraudulent Transactions) Special Provisions Act 2013).
Jamaica’s strategies to counter lottery scamming have been both preventative via education campaigns and repressive through the adoption of laws to arrest and punish scammers. However, its counter drug trafficking initiatives are predominantly repressive incorporating joint initiatives with other states as well as the passage of laws aimed to arrest and deprive traffickers of their drug proceeds.
Drug Trafficking
The Maritime Counter Drug Agreement, commonly known as the Shiprider Agreement, is one important strategy employed by the Jamaican state to curtail drug trafficking. This agreement, signed by Jamaica and the U.S., aimed to increase air and sea surveillance to counter drug trafficking activities. This agreement is reciprocal and allows law enforcers from either parties to board, search, and seize vessels or aircrafts suspected of engaging in drug trafficking. Jamaica or U.S. laws must be used subject to the field of operation. Permission must be obtained from the local authorities on a case-by-case basis in order to conduct such operations (Article 14 of the Jamaica-USA Maritime Counter Drug Agreement 1998). By collaborating with the United States under this Agreement, Jamaica obtained technical assistance and increased reconnaissance capability to combat its drug trafficking problem. Article 14 (1) of the amended agreement extended this joint initiative to other third party states. This extension signifies a deeper collaboration between states to widen their enforcement reach so that more traffickers can be apprehended (Haughton 2008).
To a large extent, the financial power of drug traffickers affords them an opulent lifestyle and the best legal defense when they are apprehended. The Jamaican state has passed two important laws to hit the finances of traffickers, namely the Money Laundering Act and the Drug Offences (Forfeiture of Proceeds) Act. The Money Laundering Act, as amended in 2002, mandates the reporting of transactions in excess of US$50,000 and has included a wide range of financial entities as required by law to report “suspicious transactions.” Understanding how drug traffickers have utilized financial liberalization to transfer drug proceeds across jurisdictions, how they were moving cash across borders, how they were laundering drug funds into the purchase of high end motor vehicles and real estate, the Act expanded the definition of financial institutions through Article 2(f) and (g) to money transfer and remittance agencies and other similar entities. It defines financial institutions as: “A person licensed under the Bank of Jamaica Act to operate an exchange bureau and a person licensed under the Securities Act as a dealer or investment adviser” (Article 2(g) of Money Laundering Act 1996).
Under Article 2 of the Drug Offences (Forfeiture of Proceeds) Act, the state may seize assets of drug traffickers once there has been a previous drug conviction and a separate hearing in which a forfeiture order is obtained by a Judge of the Supreme Court, and subsequently, if there is a published public notice of the Jamaican Government’s intent to forfeit the property (Article 2 of Drug Offences (Forfeiture of Proceeds) Act 1994). The majority of forfeiture cases in Jamaica have resulted in the forfeiture of higher-end vehicles used to convey drugs (DEA 2003).
Conclusion
Lottery scams are not new and drug trafficking has an extended international history. The novelty concerns the ease with which global processes are facilitating these crimes by connecting the rich and the poor; the criminals and the vulnerable; the good and the bad, together in one space. Such connections have resulted in the shrinking of time and space in unprecedented ways. Both Jamaica’s lottery scammers and drug traffickers have utilized such global transformations to undermine the security of the state to further their own criminal acts.
It is clear that Jamaica’s transnational crimes of drug trafficking and lottery scamming are not very different from their manifestations in other parts of the world. Global forces, while providing benefits for all, also benefit criminals and their transnational criminal activities. What remains remarkable is that although drug trafficking and lottery scamming have developed separately in Jamaica, criminals have utilized global forces in the advancement of both of these crimes.
Perhaps the most important conclusion is that Jamaica’s experiences with drug trafficking and lottery scamming point to a gradual but significant signal concerning the resilience of the state in the formulation of strategies to combat these problems. There are some steps that are being made in the right direction. These include the passage of laws to apprehend drug traffickers and scammers and to deprive them of their proceeds, collaborative measures adopted with the United States, and broader cultural and institutional efforts aimed at educating citizens about the ills of these transnational criminal activities. Globalization is in fact supporting transnational crime and it has been becoming increasingly clear that sustained state cooperative strategies are required to curb such problems.
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