Drugs Importation and the Bifurcation of Risk: Capitalization, Cut Outs and Organized Crime

• NCJ Number: 181261
• Journal: British Journal of Criminology Volume: 38 Issue: 4 Dated: Autumn 1998 Pages: 537-560
• Author(s): Nicholas Dorn; Lutz Oette; Simone White
• Editor(s): Richard Sparks
• Date Published: 1998
• Length: 24 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

Qualitative research was conducted with 15 persons convicted of serious offenses in connection with drug importation into the United Kingdom and with 10 informants of Her Majesty's Customs and Excise, with appropriate safeguards, to assess drug smuggler perceptions about risk and how they attempted to reduce risk.

Abstract

Two conceptually distinct forms of risk were identified. Strategic risk was viewed as risk to the planner-organizer, while tactical risk was viewed as risk to drugs and persons other than the planner-organizer. The focus of research was on strategic risk in an effort to understand how persons involved in drug smuggling perceived such risk. Interviews with 25 individuals were conducted in the fall of 1996; 15 persons had been convicted of serious drug importation offenses and given long prison sentences, and 10 persons were informants. A research framework was developed that incorporated the following strategic and organizational skills needed by planners-organizers of drug smuggling operations: (1) start-up capital and its relation to risk tolerance; (2) managing people (trust, violence, and negative control of information); and (3) neutralizing-evading law enforcement and positive control of information. Findings revealed that well-capitalized persons felt they were able to control personal risk and did what they could to minimize risk. On the other hand, risk-tolerant individuals who lacked start-up capital indicated that risk was always present in their operations and they could not always control it. In the context of managing people, risk reduction relied on keeping things external to the drug smuggling organization compact and tight, and trust in personal relationships was important. Planners-organizers said motivating informants not to speak or to speak in certain ways represented an attempt to control the information available to government agencies. Implications of the research findings and the need for future work on interactions between drug traffickers and drug control strategies are addressed. 18 references, 2 footnotes, 2 tables, and 1 diagram