Drug Smugglers on Drug Smuggling: Lessons from the Inside

by Scott H. Decker

Overview

Drug Smugglers on Drug Smuggling features interviews with 34 convicted drug smugglers-most of them once major operators-detailing exactly how drugs are smuggled into the U.S. from Latin America. These sources provide tangible evidence of the risks, rewards, and organization of international drug smuggling.

Quoting frequently from their interviews, Decker and Chapman explain how individuals are recruited into smuggling, why they stay in it, and how their roles change over time. They describe the specific strategies their interviewees employed to bring drugs into the country and how they previously escaped apprehension. Overall, the authors find that drug smuggling is organized in a series of networks which are usually unconnected.

This extraordinarily informative book will be of particular interest to law enforcement officials and policymakers, but it will appeal to anyone who wants to know how the drug business actually works.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	2901592136437
Publisher:	Temple University Press
Publication date:	01/15/2008
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 1.25(h) x 9.00(d)

About the Author

Scott H. Decker is Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Arizona State University.  He is the author of Life in the Gang: Family, Friends and Violence.

Margaret Townsend Chapman is an Associate at Abt Associates Inc.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     vii
Motivation for the Study     1
Understanding Drug Smuggling     3
Impact of Drug Interdiction Efforts     13
Summary     15
Organization of the Study     20
Study Design     21
Interview Sample     25
Summary     31
Drug Smuggling Organizations     33
Movement Away from Cartels     34
Structure and Movement of Drugs     36
Summary     58
Movement of Drugs     62
Transportation Routes     62
Methods of Transport     69
Summary     85
Roles, Recruitment into, and Remaining Involved in the Drug Smuggling Trade     88
Drug Smuggling Roles     89
Recruitment into Drug Smuggling     95
Motivation for Drug Smuggling     104
Leaving Drug Smuggling     109
Summary     111
Balancing Risk and Reward     114
Minimizing Risks     114
Avoiding Detection     117
Changes in Smuggling Activities in Response to Risk     123
Getting Caught     127
Assessing Risk     133
Perceptions of theU.S. Criminal Justice System     136
If You Were in Charge     141
Summary     143
Making Sense of Drug Smuggling: Conclusions and Summary     145
Organizational Structure     146
Managing Risk     151
Potential Responses by Law Enforcement     154
Instrumentation Study Design     163
Study Design     181
Notes     199
References     203
Index     207