traffick

Etymology

Use of this spelling for the verb in relation to illegal trafficking is probably influenced by the spelling of the noun trafficking.

verb

1. Alternative spelling of traffic (now especially of illegal goods)
   If an addict-possessor who trafficks in narcotics is to be prosecuted, and if these “time to time” acts constitute “trafficking,” then the Watson majority's possession exemption “will prove nearly meaningless […] 1970, The Catholic University law review, volume 20, page 760
   The writer is also a double agent, who trafficks in perceptions and double-deals between circumstances and possibilities, present and future. 1982, Helen Daniel, Double agent: David Ireland and his work, page 159
   Appellant contends that the imposition of a fine is totally unauthorized as punishment for conspiracy to traffick in marijuana. 1986, The Southeastern Reporter, page 862
   These offences include: (1) Section 129(1): this makes it an offence to traffick in persons to or from Hong Kong for the purpose of prostitution. 2003, Michael Jackson, Criminal law in Hong Kong, page 637

noun

1. Archaic spelling of traffic.
   Tho' it is evident by our histories, that in many cities in Holland great quantities of manufactures were made, when all the European traffick and navigation was mostly driven by the Easterlings and Hans-Towns, and before fishing, traffick, and freighting of ships were settled in these provinces […] 1743, Pieter de la Court, Political Maxims of the State of Holland, page 29
   When I take a cursory survey of this great METROPOLIS and its populous ENVIRONS, I cannot help venturing a conjecture, that the sum total of its internal traffick amounts to one million a day of which the actual manufacture from raw or rough materials must arise to a considerable proportion. 1776, James Stewart, The Total Refutation and Political Overthrow of Doctor Price
   It does, some persons tell us, do no good, while, on the other hand, it renews in our shocked sight scenes which it is not necessary for me to describe in detail, a traffick, which, for the sake of the liberty of the press, may as well be nameless here, though the reader will find it most circumstantially described in the former speeches of Mr. Grey, now Lord Howick. 20 December1806, Cobbett's Political Register, volume 10, page 989