drug trade --- the international network

[lorentzen-nicklaus]

 "each network defines its sites according to the functions and hierachy of each 
 site, and to the characteristics of the product or service to be processed in 
 the network. thus, one of the most powerful networks in our society, narcotics 
 production and distribution (including its money-laundering component), has 
 constructed a specific geography that has redefined the meaning, structure and 
 culture of societies, regions and cities connected in the network. thus, in 
 cocaine production and trade, the coca production sites of chapare or alto beni 
 in bolivia or alto huallanga in peru are connected to the refineries and 
 management centers in colombia, which were subsidiary, until 1995, to the 
 medellin or cali headquarters, themselves conneceted to financial centers such 
 as miami, panama, the cayman islands, and luxembourg, and to transportation 
 centers, such as the taumalipas or tijuana drug traffic networks in mexico, 
 then finally to distribution points in the main metropolitan areas of america 
 and western europe. none of these localities can exist by itself in such 
 network. the medellin and cali cartels, and their close american and italian 
 allies, would soon be out of business without the raw materials produced in 
 bolivia and peru, without the chemicals (precursors) provided by swiss and 
 german laboratories, without the semi-legal financial networks of free-banking 
 paradises, and without the distribution networks starting in miami, los 
 angeles, new york, amsterdam or la coruna."

                          --- manuel castells: the rise of the network society
                                                 massachusetts/oxford 1996:     
                                                     blackwell, pp. 414f. ---


kfl