The architecture of drug trafficking: Network forms of organisation in the Colombian cocaine trade

Global Crime

Volumn 8, Issue 3, 2007, Pages 233-259

  Kenney, Michael ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

Colombia; Drug trade; Drug trafficking; Illegal drugs; Networks; Organised crime

Indexed keywords

EID: 34548070798     PISSN: 17440572     EISSN: 17440580     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/17440570701507794     Document Type: Article

References (104)

1. Author interview with 'Néstor' [pseudonym], former drug trafficker, Federal Correctional Complex, Coleman, Florida, 19 September 2000. Emphasis added.
2. See, for example, Krauthausen, C. & Sarmiento, L. F. (1991) Cocaína y Co.: Un Mercado ilegal por dentro, Tercer Mundo Editores, Bogotac_a, Colombia
3. Lee, R. W. (1989) The White Labyrinth: Cocaine and Political Power Transaction, New Brunswick, NJ
4. Naylor, R. T. (1997) 'Mafias, Myths, and Markets: On the Theory and Practice of Enterprise Crime', Transnational Organized Crime, vol. 3, no. 3, Autumn, pp. 1-45
5. Thoumi, F. E. (1995) Political Economy and Illegal Drugs in Colombia Lynne Rienner Publishers, Boulder, CO
6. and Zaitch, D. (2002) Trafficking Cocaine: Colombian Drug Entrepreneurs in the Netherlands, Kluwer Law International, The Hague.
7. Zabludoff, S. (1997) 'Colombian Narcotics Organizations as Business Enterprises', Transnational Organized Crime, vol. 3, no. 2, p. 26.
8. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, smuggling was common throughout the Spanish vice royalty of Nueva Granada, the area that encompasses contemporary Colombia. To avoid government duties and satisfy consumer demand, contraband smugglers transported food, licor, cigarettes, machinery, and weapons across Riohacha, Santa Marta, and Cartagena. They also developed a number of maritime smuggling routes through Caribbean sea lanes that drug traffickers would exploit centuries later. For an illuminating account of contraband smuggling in Nueva Granada during colonialism, see Grahn, L. (1997) The Political Economy of Smuggling: Regional Informal Economies in Early Bourbon New Granada, Westview Press, Boulder, CO.
9. Kenney, M. (2007) From Pablo to Osama: Trafficking and Terrorist Networks, Government Bureaucracies, and Competitive Adaptation, Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park.
10. For discussion of chain referral sampling, see Russell, H. B. (2006) Research Methods in Anthropology: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches, 4th edn., Altamira Press, Lanham, MD.
11. Sutherland, E. H. (1937) The Professional Thief by a Professional Thief, Annotated and interpreted by Edwin H. Sutherland, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, p. 209.
12. The bureaucratic model of organised crime is exemplified in Donald Cressey's studies of Italian - American crime families in the United States. See Cressey, D. R. (1967) 'The Functions and Structure of Criminal Syndicates',in Task Force on Organized Crime, US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, pp. 25-60
13. and Cressey, D. R. (1969) Theft of the Nation, Harper & Row, New York.
14. For a similar interpretation, see Salerno, R. & Tompkins, J. S. (1969) The Crime Confederation, Doubleday, Garden City, NY.
15. Blok, A. (1974) The Mafia of a Sicilian Village , 1860-1960: A Study of Violent Peasant Entrepreneurs, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, UK. As Jeffrey Scott McIllwain points out, Blok was one of many' social scientists studying the influence of social networks in traditional Sicilian society.
16. Other examples, cited by McIllwain, include Boissevain J. (1960) 'Poverty and Politics in a Sicilian Agro-Town', International Archives of Ethnography, vol. 50, pp. 198-236
17. Boissevain, J. (1973) Friends of Friends: Networks, Manipulators and Coalitions, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, UK
18. Schneider, J. (1969) 'Family Patrimonies and Economic Behavior in Western Sicily', Anthropological Quarterly, vol. 42, pp. 109-129
19. and Silverman, S. F. (1965) 'Patronage and Community-Nation Relationships in Central Italy', Ethnology, vol. 4, pp. 172-189.
20. See McIllwain, J. S. (1999) 'Organized Crime: A Social Network Approach', Crime, Law, and Social Change, vol. 32, no. 4, pp. 308, 321n11
21. and McIllwain, J. S. (2004) Organizing Crime in Chinatown: Race and Racketeering in New York City, 1890-1910, McFarland & Company, Jefferson, North Carolina, pp. 13-15, 206n14.
22. Ianni, F. A. J. & Reuss-Ianni, E. (1972) A Family Business: Kinship and Social Control in Organized Crime, Russell Sage Foundation, New York.
23. Block, A. A. (1979) 'The Snowman Cometh: Coke in Progressive New York', Criminology, vol. 17, no. 1, May, pp. 94.
24. See Ianni, F. A. J. (1974) Black Mafia: Ethnic Succession in Organized Crime, Simon and Schuster, New York
25. Albini, J. L. (1971) The American Mafia: Genesis of a Legend, Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York
26. and Chambliss, W. J. (1978) On the Take: From Petty Crooks to Presidents, University of Indiana Press, Bloomington, IN.
27. For discussion of this literature, including references to other examples, see Kappeler, V. E., Blumberg, M. & Potter, G. W. (1993) The Mythology of Crime and Criminal Justice, Waveland Press, Prospect Heights, IL, p. 83
28. and Williams, P. (2001) 'Transnational Criminal Networks',in Networks and Netwars: The Future of Terror , Crime, and Militancy, eds J. Arquilla & D. Ronfeldt, RAND, Washington, DC, pp. 62-63.
29. McIllwain, J. S. (2004) Organizing Crime in Chinatown: Race and Racketeering in New York City, 1890-1910, McFarland & Company, Jefferson, NC
30. McIllwain, J. S. (1998) 'An Equal Opportunity Employer: Opium Smuggling Networks in and around San Diego During the Early Twentieth Century', Transnational Organized Crime, vol. 2, no. 4, Summer, pp. 31-54.
31. Arlacchi, P. (1986)Mafia Business: The Mafia Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, translated by Martin Ryle, Verso, London.
32. Baker, W. E. & Faulkner, R. R. (1993) 'The Social Organization of Conspiracy: Illegal Networks in the Heavy Electrical Equipment Industry', American Sociological Review, vol. 58, December, pp. 837-860.
33. Williams, P. (1995) 'Transnational Criminal Organizations: Strategic Alliances', Washington Quarterly, vol. 18, no. 1, Winter, pp. 57-72
34. Williams, P. (1998) 'The Nature of Drug-Trafficking Networks', Current History, vol. 97, no. 618, April, pp. 154-159
35. Williams, P. (1998) 'Organizing Transnational Crime: Networks, Markets and Hierarchies', Transnational Organized Crime, vol. 4, nos. 3&4, Autumn/Winter, pp. 57-87
36. and Williams, P. (2001) 'Transnational Criminal Networks', in Networks and Netwars: The Future of Terror, Crime, and Militancy, eds J. Arquilla & D. Ronfeldt, RAND, Washington, DC, pp. 61-97.
37. Other research on criminal networks includes, but is not limited to: Adler, P. A. (1993) Wheeling and Dealing: An Ethnography of an Upper-Level Drug Dealing and Smuggling Community, 2nd edn, Columbia University Press, New York
38. Arias, E. D. (2006) Drugs and Democracy in Rio de Janeiro: Trafficking, Social Networks, and Public Security, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill
39. Coles, N. (2001) 'It's Not What You Know - It's Who You Know That Counts: Analysing Serious Crime Groups as Social Networks', British Journal of Criminology, vol. 41, no. 4. pp. 580-593
40. Finckenauer, J. O. & Waring, E. (1998) Russian Mafia in America, NortheasternUniversity Press, Boston
41. Heckmann, F. (2004) 'IllegalMigration:WHat Can WeKnowandWhat Can We Explain? The Case of Germany', International Migration Review, vol. 38,no. 3, Fall, pp. 1103-1125
42. Klerks, P. (2001) 'The Network Paradigm Applied to Criminal Organisations: Theoretical Nitpicking or a Relevant Doctrine for Investigators? Recent Developments in the Netherlands', Connections vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 53-65
43. Jackson, J. L., Herbrink, J. C. M. & Jansen, R. W. J. (1996) 'Examining Criminal Organizations: Possible Methodologies', Transnational Organized Crime, vol. 2, no. 4,Winter, pp. 83-105
44. McAndrew, D. (1999) 'The Structural Analysis of Criminal Networks', in The Social Psychology of Crime: Groups, Teams and Networks, eds D. Canter & L. Alison, Ashgate, Aldershot, England, pp. 53-94
45. McGloin, J.M. (2005) 'Policy and Intervention Considerations of a Network Analysis of Street Gangs', Criminology & Public Policy, vol. 4, no. 3, August, pp. 607-636
46. Meyer, K. & Parssinen, T. (1998) Webs of Smoke: Smugglers, Warlords, Spies, and the History of the International Drug Trade, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Lanham, MD
47. Morselli, C. (2005) Contacts, Opportunities, and Criminal Enterprises University of Toronto Press, Toronto
48. Morselli, C. & Giguere, C. (2006) 'Legitimate Strengths in Criminal Networks', Crime, Law & Social Change, vol. 45, no. 3, April, pp. 185-200
49. Natarajan, M. (2000) 'Understanding the Structure of a Drug Trafficking Organization: A Conversational Analysis', in Illegal Drug Markets: FromResearch to Prevention Policy, eds M. Natarajan & M. Hough, Criminal Justice Press, Monsey, NJ, pp. 273-298
50. Potter, G. & Gaines, L. (1995) 'Organizing Crime in "Copperhead County" An Ethnographic Look at Rural Crime Networks', in Contemporary Issues in Organized Crime, ed. J. S. Albanese, Criminal Justice Press, Monsey, NY, pp. 61-85
51. and Zhang, S. & Chin, K.-L. (2002) 'Enter the Dragon: Inside Chinese Human Smuggling Organizations', Criminology, vol 40, no. 4, pp. 737-767.
52. See McIllwain, J. S. (1998) 'An Equal OpportunityEmployer: OpiumSmuggling Networks in and around San Diego During the Early Twentieth Century', Transnational Organized Crime, vol. 2, no. 4, Summer, p. 33
53. McIllwain, J. S. (2004) Organizing Crime in Chinatown: Race and Racketeering in New York City, 1890-1910, McFarland & Company, Jefferson, NC
54. and Wasserman, S. & Faust, K. (1994) Social Network Analysis: Methods and Applications, Cambridge University Press, New York. Law enforcers and intelligence analysts also use social network analysis, if for different reasons: To identify links between individual perpetrators involved in criminal conspiracies.
55. For an interesting application of social network analysis to counter-drug intelligence, see Drug Enforcement Administration (1987) Intelligence Collection and Analytical Methods, US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, Chapter 4.
56. My argument runs counter to some social network scholars who suggest that organisations cannot be thought of as network nodes because they are composed of many discrete nodes (i.e. individuals) that act and form social ties. In this view, it is a reification to speak of 'organisational' networks because 'organisations' do not act; individuals act within organisations. While this is certainly true, it is still meaningful to speak of 'organisational' action when individuals act on behalf of organisations that contain common objectives, agreed upon practices for making decisions within the collective, and formal or informal coordination mechanisms that give individuals the authority to carry out tasks for the 'organisation'. This standard view of organisation is consistent with several decades of research on organisational behavior and social network analysis, where network ,actors' are defined as individuals, groups, organisations, even computers that have regular interactions (i.e. ties) with other nodes. For discussion of what it means that an organisation may act, see Argyris, C. & Schön, D. A. (1996) Organizational Learning II: Theory, Method, and Practice, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, pp. 8-9
57. and Ménard, C. (1997) Economía de las organizaciones, Grupo Editorial Norma, Barcelona, p. 20.
58. For discussion of social network analsysis, see Wasserman, S. & Faust, K. (1994) Social Network Analysis: Methods and Applications, Cambridge University Press, New York, p. 17
59. McIllwain, J. S. (2004) Organizing Crime in Chinatown: Race and Racketeering in New York City, 1890-1910, McFarland & Company, Jefferson, NC, pp. 11-13
60. and Williams, P. (2001) 'Transnational Criminal Networks', in Networks and Netwars: The Future of Terror, Crime, and Militancy, eds J. Arquilla & D. Ronfeldt, RAND, Santa Monica, CA, pp. 66-67.
61. Wayne Baker and Robert Faulkner identify this dilemma for price fixing conspiracies, but it is applicable to a wide range of criminal activities. See Baker, W. E. & Faulkner, R. R. (1993) 'The Social Organization of Conspiracy: Illegal Networks in the Heavy Electrical Equipment Industry', American Sociological Review, vol. 58, December, pp. 837-860.
62. For discussion of the advantages of legally sanctioned networks, see Powell, W. W. (1990) 'Neither Market nor Hierarchy: Network Forms of Organization',in Research in Organizational Behavior, vol. 12, eds B. M. Staw & L. L. Cummings, JAI Press, Greenwich, CT, pp. 295-336
63. and Granovetter, M. (1985) 'Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness', American Journal of Sociology, vol. 91, no. 3, November, p. 490.
64. On the advantages of illicit networks, see Arquilla, J. & Ronfeldt, D. (2001) 'The Advent of Netwar (Revisited)', in Networks and Netwars: The Future of Terror, Crime, and Militancy, eds J. Arquilla and D. Ronfeldt, RAND, Santa Monica, CA, pp. 1-25
65. Lupsha, P. A. (1983) 'Networks versus Networking', in Career Criminals, ed. G. P. Waldo, Sage Publications, Beverly Hills, CA, pp. 59-87
66. and Williams, P. (1998) 'Organizing Transnational Crime: Networks, Markets and Hierarchies', Transnational Organized Crime, vol. 4, nos. 3-4, pp. 57-87.
67. See Kenney, M. Ibid. 5 for more on how drug trafficking and terrorist networks learn.
68. Williams, P. (2001) 'Transnational Criminal Networks', in Networks and Netwars: The Future of Terror, Crime, and Militancy, eds J. Arquilla & D. Ronfeldt, RAND, Santa Monica, CA, p. 72.
69. Ibid.
70. Williams, P. (2001) Ibid., p. 81.
71. Burt, R. S. (1992) Structural Holes: The Social Structure of Competition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
72. Bagley, B. M. (2004) 'Globalisation and Latin American and Caribbean Organised Crime', Global Crime, vol. 6, no. 1, February, pp. 32-53.
73. Author interview with 'Arturo' [pseudonym], former drug trafficker, Atlanta, Georgia, 29 August 2000.
74. Author interview with 'Freddy' [pseudonym], former drug trafficker, Federal Correctional Complex, Coleman, Florida, 19 September 2000 (my translation).
75. Ibid. 28.
76. Ibid. 29.
77. Ibid. 28.
78. Ibid. 28.
79. Ibid. 29.
80. For discussion of rules and routines in legally sanctioned organisations, see Cohen, M. D. & Bacdayan, P. (1996) 'Organizational Routines are Stored as Procedural Memory', in Cognition Within and Between Organizations, eds J. R. Meindl, C. Stubbart & J. F. Porac, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, pp. 348
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83. March, J. G. & Simon, H. A. (1958) Organizations, John Wiley & Sons, New York, p. 145
84. Posen, B. (1984) Sources of Military Doctrine: France, Britain, and Germany Between the World Wars, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, p. 44
85. and Weick, K. E. (1979) The Social Psychology of Organizing, 2nd edn, Random House, New York, pp. 112-115.
86. Arenas, F. former drug trafficker, Frontline: Drug Wars, [Online] Available at: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/ interviews/arenas.html [Accessed 22 May 2007].
87. Pallomari, G. (1997) 'Direct Testimony', Trial Transcript in the United States of America vs. Michael Abbell, et al. Defendants, United States District Court, Southern District of Florida, Miami Division, Case No. 93 470-CR-WMH, vol. 36, 17 July, p. 5938.
88. Pallomari, G. (1997) Ibid., pp. 6481-6493
89. Reyes, G. (1999) Made in Miami: Vidas de narcos, santos, seductores, caudillos y soplones, Planeta Colombiana Editorial , Bogotá, pp. 145-149.
90. Echeverry, D. B. (1998) Mediadores, rebuscadores, traquetos y narcos: Valle del Cauca 1890-1997, Ediciones Antropos, Bogotá, Colombia, p. 159 (my translation). Tragically, Dario Betancourt was later murdered by unknown assailants.
91. Author interview with 'Homero' [pseudonym], former drug trafficker, Federal Correctional Complex, Coleman, Florida, 19 September 2000 (my translation).
92. Ibid. 29.
93. Ibid. 40.
94. Ibid. 29.
95. Fuentes, J. R. (1998) The Life of a Cell, unpublished doctoral dissertation, City University of New York, pp. 164-166.
96. Garzón Saboyá, E. A. (1997) 'Aspectos legales y praxis del narcotráfico y lavado de dinero', in Drogas ilícitas en Colombia: Su impacto económico, politico y social, Planeta Colombiana Editorial, Bogotá, Colombia, pp. 347-408.
97. Farah, D. (1996) 'Colombian Drug Lords Ran Empire Behind Bars', Washington Post, 26 December, p. A37.
98. Ibid. 1.
99. Author interview with head of counter-narcotics unit, Judicial Police Directorate, Colombian National Police, Bogotá, Colombia, 21 July 2000 (my translation).
100. Ibid. 40.
101. Author interview with Colombian government prosecutor, National Prosecutor's Office, Bogotá, Colombia, 11 July 2000 (my translation).
102. Author interview with head of narcotics unit, Colombian National Police, Bogotá, Colombia, 21 July 2000 (my translation).
103. Office of Drugs and Crime, United Nations, World Drug Report 2006, Volume 1: Analysis, [OnlineH Available at: http://www.unodc.org/pdf/ WDR_2006/wdr2006_volume1.pdf [Accessed 11 July 2006], p. 17.
104. Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, US Department of State. (2006) Drug and Chemical Control, vol. 1, International Narcotics Control Strategy Report 2006, March, [Online] Available at: http://www.state.gov/p/inl/rls/nrcrpt/2006/vol1/ [Accessed 10 July 2006].