Recent Books on Transnational Organized Crime and the Illicit Drug Industry

Recent Books on Transnational Organized Crime and the Illicit Drug Industry
Peter A. Lupsha
IASOC Magazine, Vol. 10, No. 4, Summer 1997

A number of books have been published recently dealing with transnational organized crime in the illicit drug industry and public policies to combat the problem, of which IASOC members should be aware. In my opinion, the best and most important single volume in the area is "The Andrean Cocaine Industry", by Patrick L. Clawson and Rensselaear W. Lee III (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996) (ISBN 0-312-12400-7). This is truly a mature scholarly work of a serious and detailed nature. It is written by two experts who have in-depth and-on-the-ground experience with their subject matter.

Clawson is a senior research professor at the National Defense University in Washington and comes from an operations research/ economics background with excellent access to government data. Rens Lee is the author of the earlier landmark study of the cocaine industry, "The White Labyrinth", (New Brunswick, Transaction Publishers, 1989) (ISBN 0-88738-285-1). In the new work, Lee adds to and revises some of his earlier arguments and positions. He takes a much stronger stand on breaking up the major cartels, like the Cali group, and forcing decentralization of the industry into more policy and police manageable dispersed, smaller and fragmented, "Mom & Pop" groups.

Among the many (new in English) developments in this work is a lengthy analysis of the various negotiation strategies of the Colombian government with the cartel groups. Such strategies are critical when organized crime has gained a symbiotic position within a political jurisdiction, and can
provide additional tools and leverage points for law enforcement. The transnational connections and linkages of organized crime in the cocaine industry are also examined in detail. This book would be an excellent choice for an upper-division class or graduate seminar, as well as a must read for any professional working in this area.

For someone looking for a good overview and supplemental text in a lower division course, or an introduction for the general reader, Paul Stares, "Global Habit. The Drug Problem in a Borderless World", (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1996) (ISBN 0-8157-8140-7) would be my recommended book. Stares, a senior fellow at the Brookings institution, gives the reader a chronological overview of the "Global Drug Market", its future, and policy alternatives. Like Clawson and Lee and many other scholars, he does not see legalization as the answer to this problem, but does provide his "Global Prescription" of policies for ameliorating it at the global level. A strength of the Stares work is the recognition of globalization of the problem. If we are to deal effectively with transnational organized crime, he argues, it demands a new level of cooperation and coordination among both law enforcement and policy initiation and implementation agencies across jurisdictional boundaries. While Clawson and Lee take the reader deep into the details of the cocaine industry, Stares provides a policy framework at the global level in one small book of only 121 pages.

For the analyst who wants detail and depth, Francisco E. Thoumi's, brilliant book on Colombia is a "must read". "Political Economy and Illegal Drugs in Colombia", (Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1995) (ISBN 1-55587-536-X). Francisco Thoumi is an applied economist at the University of the Andes in Bogota and gives the IASOC reader the Colombian perspective, analysis, along with policy recommendations to which US policy makers should pay close attention. Besides laying out the dimensions of the Colombian historic political economy which shaped the illicit drug industry, he provides a detailed analysis of the drug entrepreneurs and their evolution, as well as the size, shape and impact of that industry on Colombia. While Stares provides a global picture and Clawson and Lee a hemispheric one, Thoumi provides the best one country case study that we have in English.

This work, like that of Clawson and Lee, will be most effectively used at the upper-division and graduate level, and by any professional or analyst traveling to or researching the industry in this region. For the CJ or organized crime undergraduate textbook writer or buff, Thoumi, like Lee's work, is an invaluable English language resource to understanding Colombian transnational organized crime groups. Another global, and "very detailed", work that any law enforcement or intelligence analyst member of IASOC should have on her/his agency research shelf is the
Observatorire Geopolitique des Drogues (OGD), "The Geopolitics of Drugs",(Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1996) (ISBN 1-55553-262-4). The Geopolitical Drug Watch, officially know as OGD, tracks the drug industry around the globe, via some 250 correspondents in 90 countries. It is the most important single unofficial clearing-house of transnational organized crime information regarding the drug industry that IASOC members have available to them. The trafficking and route mapping provided by OGD rivals or is better than most governmental intelligence agency materials in the open source arena. Published in Paris by Alain Labrousse, it is an invaluable resource for those working globally on transnational organized crime. In this writer's experience, OGD beats potential rivals like,"Jane's Intelligence Review", in timeliness, and accuracy (names, details, and routings), especially in less covered areas like South Asia, Central Asia, and the critical Southern Russian (Black sea and Azerbaijan) drug

Unfortunately, OGD is in trouble for speaking the truth to power. It is under attack from both the governments of Morocco and France, for illuminating (via a Wall Street Journal art.) high level corruption in the marijuana (hashish) industry and its transit to Europe. Regrettably, it may not survive the pressure. In this writer's opinion, this is all the more reason to support this publication. For if it disappears, we independent American scholars and researchers will lose another invaluable resource, just as we have lost data rich Crime Commissions across the United States. OGD also publishes "The Geopolitical Drug Dispatch", a monthly update from which the annual book is synthesized. The Dispatch is not cheap ( US $280), but it is very useful. Individual (research grant) and institutional subscriptions are strongly recommended. Should IASOC readers be interested, you can reach Alain Labrousse via the following, and mention IASOC and this review. (Fax 100347.3673@compuserve.com)

For IASOC members who read Spanish, Yolanda Figueroa's "El Capo del Golfo", (Mexico City, D.F. Editorial Grijalbo, S.A., 1996) (ISBN 970-05-0666-5) is a valuable book. It examines the life and capture of Juan García Abrego and is a useful addition to our understanding of the drug industry and corruption in the Mexican political system. This book is a synthesis of Mexican government reports, documents and newspaper stories illuminating the history, operations, and connections of the Garcia Abrego drug trafficking organization. As such, however, it suffers the "quick study" syndrome, and weakness of acceptance of information without adequate cross referencing and
corroboration. This, unfortunately is true of most scholarship on Mexican organized crime, where any detailed truth telling can be fatal. Corroboration can be found in other sourcing, and in English in US government "Open Source" (OSINT) reports available to those who dig, and use WNC (The World News Connection) on the Internet. This observer, with some 20 years experience on the topic, found this book, in overview and details, to be accurate and useful.

It is not as analytical as the excellent Colombian journalistic studies of the drug industry by Fabio Castillo, "Los jinetes de la cocaína" (Bogotá, Colombia: Editorial Documentos Periodísticos, 1987, reprint. 1988) (ISBN 958-95155-0-9) and "La coca nostra", (Bogotá, Colombia: Editorial Documentos Periodísticos, 1991) (ISBN 958-95155-2-5). or the excellent and classic COCAÍNA & CO., by Ciro Krauthausen and Luis Fernando Sarmiento, (Bogotá, Colombia: Tercer Mundo Editores, 1991) (ISBN 958-601-344-8), out of which Lee and Thoumi have collected much valuable evidence, it is nevertheless a valuable addition to the Mexican materials to our understanding of Mexican organized crime. It is a useful read for IASOC members researching this area.

Peter A. Lupsha, Professor Emeritus, Political Science, & Senior Research Scholar, Latin American Institute, University of New Mexico