Investigating Drug Peddling in Nigeria Using a Machine Learning Approach

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Intelligent Systems Design and Applications (ISDA 2021)

Abstract

The problem persists despite the heavy consequences of jail and the death penalty imposed on those found guilty of selling drugs. This situation creates an alarm among academics and managers who work in practice. Hotbeds for drug dealers are on the rise, and their financial impact on the global economy is moving forward. Drug peddlers distract society by war** peace, justice, and order and threaten the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study evaluated secondary data containing qualities and suspect drug groups to determine whether machine learning techniques could predict the suspect drug group. We developed a prediction model using nine machine learning algorithms: AdaBoost (AB), naïve Bayes (NB), logistic regression (LR), K nearest neighbour (KNN), random forest (RF), decision tree (DT), neural network (NN), CN2 and support vector machine (SVM). The study utilized Orange data mining software to obtain a more accurate perspective on the data. Predictive accuracy was determined using 5-fold stratified cross-validation. Friedman’s test was conducted, and the results showed that the performance of each algorithm was significantly different. Also, the study compared the models and compiled the results. The results reveal that the random forest has the highest accuracy compared to the others. This prediction model implies that high accuracy can help the government make informed decisions by accurately identifying and classifying suspected individuals and offenders. This prediction will help the government refer suspected individuals and offenders who meet the qualifications for specific drug law sections, like prosecution or rehabilitation, to those sections with a faster and more accurate rate. The outcome of this study should be helpful to law enforcement agents, analysts, and other drug practitioners who may find machine learning tools dependable to detect and classify drug offenders.

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Appendix

Appendix

Table 6. Friedman test
Table 7. Friedman effect size
Table 8. Pairwise comparisons using Wilcoxon rank sum test with continuity correction for the algorithms

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Balogun, O.S., Olaleye, S.A., Moshin, M., Haataja, K., Gao, XZ., Toivanen, P. (2022). Investigating Drug Peddling in Nigeria Using a Machine Learning Approach. In: Abraham, A., Gandhi, N., Hanne, T., Hong, TP., Nogueira Rios, T., Ding, W. (eds) Intelligent Systems Design and Applications. ISDA 2021. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 418. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96308-8_10

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