Drug War Zone: Frontline Dispatches from the Streets of El Paso and Juárez (review)

With close to twenty years of ethnographic study, Howard Campbell collects and analyzes an array of voices of those who compete to survive within the distinct powers and discourses that comprise the narco-economy. This is one of the most significant contributions to the study of dope because Campbell uses ethnography to document the impact of transnational flows, whether of commodities, ideas, or violence, on the daily lives of people on all sides of the drug economy. Differing from journalistic studies, Campbell gives greater context to the issues by allowing those immersed in the illicit trade a greater space to tell their stories.

Campbell, a professor of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Texas-El Paso, employs his current hometown as a site of analysis. He opens the book by confessing his early fascination with Terrence Poppa’s Drug Lord (1998). Campbell argues that his study of drugs was first a hobby that became an unavoidable scholarly pursuit due to his location and what he observed. In the work, he provides a sophisticated look at the array of actors within transnational flows of drugs. His general introduction positions this work as similar to the multi-faceted world of drug trafficking, as men, women, and children from all walks of life play key roles in the industry. The study is divided into two sections, both with nuanced introductions that problematize narcotics. The first, with a focus on smuggling, contains accounts by historians, addicts, a female boss, peddlers, and smugglers. From women in search of economic stability to a scuba diver who accidently trained smugglers to a highly educated recovering addict turned anarchist who sees drugs trafficking as a vehicle to challenge the system, diverse actors occupy the narco-economy. From the distinct accounts, the reader gains an understanding of change over time in El Paso-Ciudad Juárez, such as the changing lexicon of drugs, pricing, historical actors, and mobility, whether socioeconomic or physical.

In the second section, on law enforcement, Campbell distinguishes among the different agencies involved in interdiction as well as the distinctions between the tactical level actors (blue collar) and organizational actors (white collar). Rather than reflecting the state discourse that often is echoed in policy studies, Campbell demonstrates the tension between anti-drug work, corruption, and personal lives. He offers greater personal analysis of many stories that have circulated in the media, such as an interview with a drug agent associated with the “House of Death.” Campbell also questions the role of informants and their treatment and mistreatment by U.S. federal authorities. One of the most poignant essays focuses on Mexican journalist Rafael Nuñez, who served as an informant and researcher for a Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times journalist. Mexican journalists have given their lives in covering the drug war, and their work is essential to any scholar of drug studies. While U.S. journalists have won awards and live comfortable lives far from the danger, Nuñez and his fellow journalists encounter regular threats of violence with few of the rewards and recognition. Lastly, Campbell demonstrates the shifting views of law enforcement officers by closing with Terry Nelson, a retired Border Patrol and Customs agent who works for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP). Nelson argues that he questioned the futility of interdiction while still an agent, but he was told he did not make policy, he only enforced it (p. 263).

As now and in the past, people enter the drug economy for an array of reasons. They have diverse experiences and their perceptions of the drug war change over time, clashing with projected public images and narratives. Campbell speaks as a borderlander whose astute analysis enhances other ethnographies that move beyond thirty-second sound bites and limited commentaries. The richness of Drug War Zone ensures that it is one of the seminal works for...