AntiDrug Efforts Essay Research Paper On July

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Anti-Drug Efforts Essay, Research Paper On July 30, Federal agents charged twelve Delta Air Lines employees of smuggling drugs into the United States. Nine Delta Airlines workers were arrested and three others are sought as suspects in a scheme that brought 10 tons of Colombian cocaine into the U.S. via Delta flights from Puerto Rico. Over a three to four year period, employees stashed cocaine in suitcases and packed the drug into cargo containers which were then transported primarily to New York from San Juan’s Mun?z Marin International Airport, agents said (Christopher Wren, “Nine at Delta Are Seized in Smuggling of Cocaine,” New York Times, July 31, 1997, p. A23; “Delta workers indicted on cocaine smuggling charges,” USA Today, July 31, 1997, p. 3A; “Airline

Workers Held in Drug Ring,” Washington Post, July 31, 1997, p. A16). In a separate investigation, agents in Miami arrested six American Airlines employees on July 31 who allegedly imported heroin and cocaine from Bogota, Colombia. The drugs were stashed behind walls in the airplane galleys. Since November the employees allegedly smuggled 1,100 pounds of cocaine and up to 22 pounds of heroin. The drugs were placed on the plane in Bogota, but not unloaded until after the plane had landed in Miami and then made one domestic round trip flight to avoid surveillance at Miami International. The scheme required “not only a mechanic’s or a cargo handler’s knowledge but an operations man’s knowledge of where a flight is coming from, whether it’s going to go and where it’s

going to go if it is,” said Art Kosatka, security specialist for Counter Technology Inc. (Richard Willing, “Airline drug smugglers getting ever more sophisticated,” USA Today, August 1, 1997, p. 4A). The Gangster Disciples operate a sophisticated retail drug network worth $100 million a year that stretches into 35 states according to a special report on the Gangster Disciples (GD) in the Christian Science Monitor (Ann Scott Tyson, “How Nation’s Largest Gang Runs its Drug Enterprise,” Christian Science Monitor, July 15, 1996, p. 1). “The Gangster Disciples are one of if not the largest and most successful gang in the history of the United States,” claims James Morgan, special agent in charge of the DEA in Chicago (emphasis in the original). The 30,000-strong gang

is “incredibly well-disciplined and trained,” he said. US Attorney James Burns told President Clinton during a May briefing that the GD have “a very sophisticated battle plan and a very sophisticated organization.” According to this report, the organization and battle plan were created by GD chief, Larry “King” Hoover. Modeled after Chicago’s Italian Mafia, the top-down organization has always emphasized discipline, respect and hierarchy. At the top is the “chairman” (Hoover) and two “boards of directors,” one controls street operations and the other controls 5,000 to 10,000 imprisoned gang members. Under the directors are about 15 “governors” who oversee up to 1,500 members each in specific territories. These territories are subdivided between

“regents” and “coordinators” who distribute drugs, oversee operations, manage security forces and collect profits and dues called “street taxes.” At the bottom of the organization are “enforcers” and “shorties.” Enforcers mete out fines and “violations”- punishments ranging from beatings to death for members who break gang rules. Shorties execute drug deals and guard gang territory. The gang lures young recruits from poor and jobless communities with the promise of easy cash ($50 to $200 a day) and bigger reponsibilities like working “security” shifts with powerful handguns. Hoover has drafted rules for the members. They include prohibition from using addictive drugs, stealing from or showing disrespect to other members, engaging in homosexual rape and