Latino Organized Crime

Columbia

• 1. Controls the world’s cocaine industry• 2. Only South American country with both Pacific and

Caribbean coastlines.• 3. High Andes divide the country into 4 regions.• 4 Very violent country

• Murder very sadistic “corte de corbata” Columbian necktie – throat is cut longitudinally and the tongue pulled through to hang like a tie.

• “no dejar la seminlla” Don’t leave a seed. Includes the castration of males and execution of women and children. Raped in front of family members, before you kill a man you must make him scream and gag, children were killed slowly and with pleasure. Victims were always horribly mutilated and left on display to amplify fear.

Columbia Continued

• 5. Homicide rate is 8 times that of US• 6. Murder is leading cause of death for

Colombian males aged 15 to 44.• 7. Highest child murder rates in the world.

Street children kill each other, and hundreds are murdered by vigilante groups as they engage in “social cleansing”

• 8. Core Groups resemble the Sicilian Mafia, except the groups are often headed by women.

Cuban-Colombian Connection• Fidel Castro overthrew Fulgencio Batista in 1959 he threw

out American gangsters who operated gambling casinos• Many fled to US. They began importing cocaine from Cuba

to sell. The cocaine came from Colombia, but was imported from Cuba

• Then, in the 1960’s, Colombians began immigrating to the US.

• They began to become dissatisfied with Cuban dealers in US who were marketing their drugs, but pocketing most of the profits.

• Enforcers, young men from Colombia, were sent into the US and executed Cubans in Miami and New York.

• The Cubans became subordinate to the Colombians, and drug wars between rival Colombians began in South Florida

Colombian Drug Trafficking

• Colombia controls the market because it is positioned to both receive coca from Peru and Bolivia, and to export the processed drug to the US by sea.

• Country’s vast forests conceal clandestine labs and air strips

• They established the Institute of Advanced Chemical Research in Bogata, trained top class chemists who went to work for the drug cartels

• Their violent tendencies intimidated other countries that might have attempted to compete with them.

Politics of Dope• The central banking industry of Colombia has unregulated currency exchange.

Through various taxing, amnesties, and other financial tactics, the money ends up in the hands of drug dealers, and into political campaign contributions.

• Well trained and funded guerilla forces guard cocaine enterprises, and local military are out gunned, out manned, and out trained.

• In some areas of Colombia, the economy is built on coca, and coca paste is the local currency. To keep the traffickers from ripping off the farmers, a minimum price is set for a kilo of cocaine. Just like the gold standard!

• Civil type wars errupt on occasion between the large land owners and the guerillas for control of the poppy and coca producing regions. These land owners managed to get together an army to fight the guerillas.

• They maintain control of the regions, protect the drug exporting routes, align themselves with a drug cartel, and reap the rewards financially.

• These militas started by land owners appear to be more effective than the government at fighting the guerillas.

• While the militas are involved in drug trade, they also support the community by building roads, schools, etc.

Colombian Drug Trafficking • Cartel – a criminal network whose structure resembles that of a holding

company, a collection of flexible groups with senior managers responsible for coordinating cartel operations.

• The cartels are compartmentalized to control the many steps in growing, harvesting, processing, and exporting drugs.

• The members of the different sections do not know each other, but are connected by the head of the cartel that oversees it all.

• In the US, cocaine cartel reps act as brokers to coordinate deliveries, usually 100 kilos at a time.

• Distributors are usually Dominican organizations, and Jamaican posses.• A prospective wholesale buyer is be approved, and is allowed to take the

drugs and pay for them when after he sells them, but he must put up collateral, cash, deeds to property. He must also provide human collateral in the form of his family in Colombia, who will pay with their lives if he is caught.

Pablo Escobar• Born 1949. Father was a farmer, mother a school teacher.• Received a high school education, but was too poor for college.• Became a petty criminal, then bodyguard/enforcer for an electronics

smuggler/then headed a small group of cocaine smugglers.• As cocaine demand in the US soared, Escobar invested money in a small

fleet of airplanes.• This allowed him to deal directly with Peru and Bolivia and ship his drugs

to the US from there instead of going through Colombia.• As his wealth grew, he invested in land and became a political figure in

Medellin, which is drug cartel ground zero.• He also began investing in the community. • Escobar engaged in war with the Colombia because he wanted them to do

away with extradition to the US. • Escobar then turned into a type of terrorist when he didn’t get his way.• Escobar was shot by Colombian police on 12/2/93.

Mexico and Drug Trafficking• 1990 Mexican criminal organizations struck a deal with Colombians – for

every 2 kilos of cocaine smuggled cocaine, they would keep 1 as payment.

• This deal was brokered by Sandra Avila Beltran, known as the Queen of the Pacific who is part of the Sinaloa Cartel. Married twice, both of her husbands were police commanders turned traffickers, and both were murdered.

• Mexican had tried to convert, but smelled like kerosene, so this arrangement benefited both parties.

• NAFTA (North American Free Trade Act) opened the already porous borders and allowed even more cocaine through.

• All of this profit caused corruption to protect the shipments.• In 1998, Colombians started to think the Mexicans had become too big for

their britches. Mexicans had started forming their own direct links to Bolivia and Peru, cutting out the Colombians.

• Mexicans then began to diversify, getting into heroin, methamphetamine, and marijuana. They used the same structure as the Colombians.

Dominicans• Major transit country for cocaine moving to the US and serves as a

command and control center.• In the 1960’s many illegally immigrated to the US in New York. • Dominicans often traffick in ecstasy and cocaine, and heroin. • Dominicans move large amounts of heroin and crack cocaine at the

wholesale and street level that they purchase directly from Asian and Colombian importers.

• They are known for selling uncut drugs, and often operate out of grocery stores, bars, and restaurants in Latino neighborhoods.

• They have a reputation for being reliable and promptly paying suppliers.

• Because they have connections on the street, they are the ones that operate between the suppliers (Colombians) and the street dealers.