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This chapter discusses the rise of entrepreneurial traffickers (both upper-and lower-level) in the Chinese drug market. First, it examines the relationship between organized crime groups and drug trafficking and distribution. It then moves on to the social organization of the drug trade by exploring issues such as fragmented trafficking process, hierarchy and division of labor, mobility within the drug trade, and self-preservation measures. It finds that China’s heroin trade consists mostly of highly fragmented stages and mutually isolated groups of entrepreneurs. In fact, all traffickers were involved in particular segments or specific stages of the drug trade, picking up their consignment at one point and moving it to the next. There were no organizations or traffickers that operated in multiple markets or exerted influence beyond their point of delivery. This is not to say that drug trafficking is not organized or coordinated among these entrepreneurs. Careful planning and execution are fundamental to operational success; and redundancy is kept to a minimum since every task is carried out by “trusted” partners. However, such organized behavior should not be confused with the concept of a formal organization, which implies operational regularity and existential continuity.

This chapter discusses the characteristics of the wholesale heroin market by examining some of the major drug trafficking cases between Burma and China since the mid-1980s. It takes an in-depth look at the rise and fall of a heroin kingpin, Tan Xiaolin, and mid-level heroin traffickers, Jiang Jiatian and Yang Jufen. It examines the role of southern China in wholesale drug trafficking, especially Guangdong and its vicinity. It concludes that the Chinese high-level drug market is very similar to the high-level drug trades in the United States, the Great Britain, and Canada, but very different from those in Mexico and Colombia, especially in terms of monopoly, violence, and corruption. Drug markets in countries like the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and China, under strict enforcement, tend to be small, nonhierarchical, poorly organized, with less violence and corruption, and exist on the margins of society. In lax enforcement countries such as Mexico and Colombia, drug trafficking organizations tend to be larger, better organized, more likely to use violence and corruption. Members of these organizations “can lead very comfortable lives, publicly enjoying their wealth and circulating in high society in the company of high level politicians.”

This chapter focuses on low-level drug traffickers. Using a survey of 578 convicted drug traffickers inside a Chinese prison and in-depth interviews with a small number of drug inmates, it examines the individual and group characteristics of these convicted drug traffickers. It explores what they were convicted for, what were their sentences, and how they entered the drug business in the first place. It also analyzes one particular method of drug trafficking between Burma and China, the “ants-moving-house” method. In response to law enforcement crackdowns on large-scale heroin trafficking activities and to take advantage of the strong supply of willing risk takers, many traffickers in China move only small quantities of heroin by mule. The chapter discusses what the routes are, where and how mules are recruited, and the social organization of this particular method of heroin trafficking.

Very few media reports and films show anything but the dark side of the cult of Santa Muerte. Most American and Mexican nonbelievers, for example, have little idea that the Skinny Lady heals sickness, finds employment, and helps alcoholics and drug addicts in their struggles for sobriety. This chapter, however, focuses on the decidedly non-Christian and often amoral Santa Muerte who is asked to perform all sorts of dark deeds. It describes how Saint Death has become the patroness of the drug war. In other words, her devotion among the police, soldiers, and prison guards, those on the front lines of the Mexican government's war against the cartels, seems as widespread as it is among the traffickers they are fighting.

This chapter examines women’s participation in drug trafficking and street drug dealings in Yunnan, China, to understand how women have played a role in gaining and maintaining market positions in this illicit business. Drawing on data from a survey of 297 convicted female inmates and in-depth interviews with more than a dozen active female drug dealers in the community, it proposes a niche market perspective for understanding women’s participation in this illicit enterprise. Unlike other traditional enterprises, women were not simply relegated to invisible margins, but instead were present in many levels of the drug trade. In most cases, women worked for or with male partners, but they occasionally participated independently. Perhaps the most important feature of the drug trade along the border between Yunnan and Burma that shapes women’s participation is the absence of violence.

This chapter examines the social organization of street-level heroin distribution in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province. The focus is on Kunming not only because it is the heroin capital of China, but also because the research project was conducted with the participation of researchers from a police college located there. Based on in-depth interviews with 39 heroin retailers in Kunming, the chapter explores the individual characteristics of street-level heroin dealers, the reasons for their engagement in heroin retail, and the modus operandi of street-level heroin distribution in Kunming. It also discusses maima (literally “selling horses” or snitching)—the most prevalent method used by drug enforcers to go after heroin retailers, and what these retailers usually do to protect themselves from being arrested by the authorities.

The astonishing growth of the Santa Muerte cult over the past decade has resulted in millions of new devotees who are neither jilted lovers nor traffickers of narcotics and stimulants. The new flock of faithful is a heterogeneous group with diverse afflictions and aspirations. To meet the various needs of her diverse devotional base, the Powerful Lady has abandoned her narrow specialization in matters of love and passion for the new role of an omnipotent generalist whose range of operation is probably greater than that of any other spiritual rival, including the Virgin of Guadalupe and Jesus. In looking at her complex new identity on the Mexican and American religious landscapes, this chapter focuses on how devotees conceive of her, while the views of nonbelievers will also be taken into account.

This chapter notes a sizable cocaine seizure in Lima, Peru's capital, that was nestled in the arid hills next to the Pacific Ocean on May 11, 1996. It recounts how Peruvian authorities happened upon 174 kilograms of cocaine hidden inside the fuselage of a Douglas DC-8 jet belonging to the Peruvian Air Force that was slated to fly to Russia. It also cites how Peruvian president, Alberto Fujimori, used the DC-8 as an executive plane several months before the drug raid. The chapter talks about how the National Intelligence Service, Peru's military intelligence arm, acted with alacrity to pressure military brass to reveal which officials had been scheduled to be on the DC-8 to fly to Russia. It refers to notorious drug traffickers Demetrio Chávez Peñaherrera and Abelardo Cachique Rivera, who named three generals involved in their trafficking network and testified that Peruvian military officials accepted bribes on multiple occasions so that the drug ring could operate uninhibited.

This chapter discusses the impact of the Helmand Valley Development Project, the largest American investment project in Afghanistan prior to the Afghan-Soviet War, and the impact on the development of the illicit opium trade. During the 1950s and 1960s, American development projects (through USAID) aimed to transform the Helmand Valley into a rich agricultural zone by building dams, and improving irrigation and farming techniques, to prepare farmers to grow crops for regional and global markets. By the 1970s, shifts in the global supply of illicit opium led drug traffickers to Afghanistan in search of new supply, and farmers in Helmand and surrounding areas began to shift to opium cultivation. In the course of the analysis, the chapter explores the relationship between globalization and development projects, and why the Helmand Valley project played a critical role in the growth of illicit opium production in Afghanistan.