RESOURCE FILES

Chapter 7

Constructing Difference: Social Deviance

Micro-Macro Connection

 


Drug Trade and Global Deviance

As social life becomes more global, certain forms of deviance begin to take on a more international flavor. Recent global trends like the growing diversity of populations, higher immigration rates, realignment of national borders, deteriorating economic conditions, democratization of governments, and improving computerization and communication technology have all helped to create major international organized crime networks. Major crime rings from Colombia, China, Italy, Korea, Jamaica, Russia, Japan, and Southeast Asia do business in the United States today.1

Except for military expenditures, the global illegal drug trade is the largest industry in the world.2 International criminal organizations (ICOs) can threaten the stability of governments, hinder economic development, and even challenge a superpower.3

In the early 1990s, for instance, the Medellin drug cartel launched a full-scale terrorist assault in Colombia. Public facilities and newspaper offices were bombed. Members of leading families were kidnapped. A leading candidate for the presidency was assassinated. Hundreds of police officers were murdered. A national airline flight was blown up in midair. The cartel's aim was to force the government to share power with the drug traffickers.

ICOs don't rely on violence alone to influence governments. The fantastic sums of money generated by illegal activities, especially drug production, give ICOs the ability to employ bribery to achieve their goals. In 1994 the president of Colombia was accused of accepting $6 million from drug dealers to help him win the election. He was eventually acquitted of all charges, but many in Colombia and elsewhere remained highly skeptical of his innocence.

In 1997, Mexican court files revealed a history of collusion between a prominent drug baron and high-ranking military officersóincluding four generalsówho had been enlisted by the Mexican and U.S. governments to lead the fight against drug production and trafficking.4

The global connections established by ICOs allow them to create whole new drug markets. The introduction of "crack" in the United States in the mid-1980s revolutionized the cocaine market here.

International networks also enable ICOs to adapt quickly to law enforcement efforts. When U.S. agencies shut off the flow of heroin from Turkey, new sources quickly developed in Southeast and Southwest Asia. When enforcement efforts were increased in Florida and the Caribbean, cocaine was simply routed through Central America and Mexico. Mexican organized crime was enlisted to run the network of local landing strips, safe houses, and corrupt government officials necessary to sustain the operation. The Colombian cartels have explored similar contacts with the Sicilian Mafia in hopes of expanding the European drug market.5 ICOs even establish connections with terrorist groups, which provide armed protection for landing fields, production facilities, and operations in exchange for cash.

Unlike the more traditional criminal groups, such as the American Mafia or ethnic street gangs, ICOs are massive business enterprises, often with transnational political and financial connections. The Colombian drug cartels, for example, have tens of thousands of specialized employees and associated businesses worldwide. Although the more traditional crime organizations may also develop international ties and suppliers, ICOs are organized for the express purpose of engaging in large-scale criminal activities across international borders.6

The profits earned by ICOs dwarf those of traditional crime organizations:

The Colombian cartels alone probably make more in a week than the American Mafia does in a year. The Colombian cartels now outperform most Fortune 500 companies. A conservative estimate of illegal drug sales at the retail, or user, level in the United States alone is $50 billion. [The] cartels are estimated to make a profit of about $20 billion annually from these revenues. . . . The combined budgets of the governments of Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru is only about $9 billion annually.7

Furthermore, although traditional, nationally based criminal organizations may pose a variety of threats to society, they are in no position to challenge the sovereignty and integrity of an entire government. But where governments are unable to deliver needed social services and economies are deteriorating, the appeal of powerful international crime organizations can overwhelm respect for the law. In some areasólike small villages in the Peruvian AndesóICOs are the only form of authority many people have ever known. In fact, in circumstances where government authority is weak, powerful ICOs may see themselves as the legitimate political authority.

In sum, these crime organizations are powerful enough to challenge, destabilize, and perhaps someday completely control small countries. Hence they represent a threat to international security that no single country can control alone.

1Godson, R., & Olson, W. J. 1995. "International organized crime." Society, 32, 18-29. See also Stephens, G. 1994. "The global crime wave." The Futurist, 28, 22-28.

2United Nations Research Institute, 1995. States of disarray: The social effects of globalization. London: UNRISD.

3Godson, R., & Olson, W. J. 1995. "International organized crime." Society, 32, 18-29.

4Dillon, S., & Pyes, C. 1997. "Court files say drug baron used Mexican military." New York Times, May 24.

5Godson, R., & Olson, W. J. 1995. "International organized crime." Society, 32, 18-29.

6Godson, R., & Olson, W. J. 1995. "International organized crime." Society, 32, 18-29.

7Godson, R., & Olson, W. J. 1995. "International organized crime." Society, 32, 23.

 


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David Newman and Rebecca Smith. (Created October 7, 1999). Copyright Pine Forge Press.
http://www.pineforge.com/newman.