Strategies for Prevention and Combatting Goods Smuggling in the Police Command of the Islamic Republic of Iran

The criminal phenomenon of goods smuggling is complex, diverse, and widespread. In order to succeed in prevention and combatting goods smuggling, the police must pay attention to strategic issues in this area by formulating strategies and utilizing available resources. This research was conducted with the aim of achieving prevention and combatting strategies against goods smuggling in the law enforcement command of the Islamic Republic of Iran. This research is considered applied in terms of objective, descriptive in nature, and mixed-methods in terms of methodology. The participants included experts in prevention and combatting goods smuggling in the law enforcement command and eight responsible organizations in this field, with interviews concluding after theoretical saturation with a total of 21 individuals. The quantitative phase involved 92 respondents using Cochran's formula. In the qualitative section, a semi-structured interview technique was employed, and the findings from the interviews were categorized into 343 themes through qualitative content analysis. Based on the theoretical data and conducted interviews, a researcher-developed questionnaire was prepared, which was externally validated and demonstrated reliability through Cronbach's alpha higher than 0.7. The SWOT analysis technique was utilized to extract strategies. The strategies were analyzed based on environmental factors, formation of IFE and EFE tables, determination of strategic position and action, formation of pairwise matrices, and prioritization. The matrix diagram of situational assessment and strategic action shows that currently, the prevention and combatting of goods smuggling is in a defensive quarter and in a desirable state in the mild offensive quarter. Based on the results of the quantitative strategic planning matrix, the priority of strategies, in order, includes: enhancing informational and operational activities, prevention, control, and comprehensive countermeasures, efficient management of capacities and resources, implementing and institutionalizing risk management, focusing on organized smuggling, overseeing financial and monetary flows, completing access to system information, institutionalizing the consumption of Iranian quality goods, informational oversight, combating rent-seeking and monopolies, supporting and protecting employees.