Drug Smugglers on Drug Smuggling: Lessons from the Inside

Recruitment into Drug Smuggling

often were charged with large roles and high-level offenses by the government, reflecting their importance to the drug smuggling enterprise. You see, it’s like in any small business. Sometimes you are the only person there.Your duties won’t be completely limited to accounting. You may have to do some driving or something like that, which I would do. Usually, a lot of times I’d get stuck in the so-called safe house or the warehouse. Someone has got to control the inventory, keep track of what goes out and what comes in.That would be my job. (24) My involvement was to meet the guy in New York. I would meet him outside, and he would give it [the dump] to me. Whatever came through, I would take it from there. I would be out there before the flight arrived and when he gets there the guy knows me, I know him. He hands me everything, and then I’m gone. (27) Recruitment into Drug Smuggling This section of the chapter documents the drug smugglers’ responses to questions about the process by which they became involved in drug smuggling. Involvement occurs at two levels: recruitment into the initial act of drug smuggling, and recruitment into subsequent smuggling activities and new roles.Where available and appropriate, we make such distinctions in our findings. Our use of the term recruitment implies a formal, purposive effort to involve others in an activity. As such, this term may overstate the formality of organizations and ignore the more dominant role of routine everyday activities that create relationships . Ianni (1974) observes that relationships in criminal organizations can be founded on personal ties or on organizational ties. Most of our subjects got involved in drug smuggling because of their friendships with or relational links to individuals Roles in the Drug Smuggling Trade b 95 already involved in smuggling. Indeed, the pattern of everyday life—which includes contact with or bonds to blood relatives, affiliational ties with workers or neighbors, or links to persons who can perform reciprocal favors—works to create opportunities for recruitment into drug smuggling. After all, it is unlikely for a stranger to be approached on the street and asked to assist in a drug smuggling effort. We found little evidence that individuals were recruited “cold” for the specific skills they could bring to drug smuggling efforts. That is, none of our respondents told us that they recruited a boat captain or a money launderer who was unknown to them when they needed such an individual (or that they were recruited that way). People appear to be recruited through a process of large networks, where typically they are known to others through means other than drug smuggling. This process underscores the informal elements of trust and word of mouth that work in most drug smuggling networks. This resembles a small family business more than a large corporate environment. One variable that did distinguish the recruitment of some individuals was their acknowledgement that their prior involvement in drug smuggling was part of the reason for their recruitment. Such individuals were likely to acknowledge their criminality and accept responsibility for their actions. On the other hand, many individuals became involved without explicit knowledge of their complicity in drug smuggling, particularly because it was their first event. Personal Ties Individuals are often recruited through ethnic ties.This is particularly true among Colombians, who are more likely to trust another individual of Colombian ethnicity than to trust members of other ethnic groups. Similarly, Cubans were much more likely to recruit and trust other Cubans, particularly for activities related to boats and the tasks associated with loading, shipping, and offloading drugs.This was especially true of Colombians and Cubans in the 96 b Chapter 5 Miami area. For example, a Colombian in Miami trusted and involved another individual based on word from the home country. I have a good position. I have good career. I have my wife and everything you know, but I was trusted because the person that [I knew] in Colombia were the leaders of the organization . They trusted me because they saw my job, more experience you know. I live in Colombia, my family lives in Colombia. (23) One smuggler estimated that 90 percent of Colombians are involved in the drug trade and the other 10 percent are connected through relations. [L]ike if you say Colombian. You look...