Introduction : the making of illicitness / Itty Abraham and Willem van Schendel -- Spaces of engagement : how borderlands, illicit flows, and territorial states interlock / Willem van Schendel -- The rumor of trafficking : border controls, illegal migration, and the sovereignty of the nation-state / Diana Wong -- Talking like a state : drugs, borders, and the language of control / Paul Gootenberg -- "Here, even legislators chew them" : coca leaves and identity politics in northern Argentina / Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui -- Seeing the state like a migrant : why so many non-criminals break immigration laws / David Kyle and Christina A. Siracusa -- Criminality and the global diamond trade : a methodological case study / Ian Smillie -- Small arms, cattle raiding, and borderlands : the Ilemi triangle / Kenneth I. Simala and Maurice Amutabi