Smuggler Nation (76 page)

99
. Ginger Thompson and Mark Mazzetti, “U.S. Drones Fight Mexican Drug Trade,”
New York Times
, 15 March 2011.

100
. Quoted in Chris McGreal, “How Mexico’s Drug Cartels Profit from the Flow of Guns Across the Border,”
Guardian
(UK), 8 December 2011.

101
. On the domestic political and bureaucratic obstacles to curbing gunrunning to Mexico, see especially James Verini, “Mexican Roulette,”
Foreign Policy
30 (August 2011).

102
. National Drug Intelligence Center,
National Drug Threat Assessment 2010
(Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, February 2010).

103
. For an overview, see June S. Beittel,
Mexico’s Drug Trafficking Organizations: Source and Scope of the Rising Violence
(Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 7 January 2011).

104
. The Justice in Mexico Project at the Trans-border Institute (University of San Diego) has carried out the most careful and detailed tracking of Mexican drug violence.

Chapter 16

1
.
Strategy to Combat Transnational Organized Crime: Addressing Converging Threats to National Security
(Washington, DC: White House, 19 July 2011).

2
. John Kerry,
The New War: The Web of Crime That Threatens America’s Security
(New York: Touchstone, 1998), 32.

3
. Jessica Mathews, “Power Shift,”
Foreign Affairs
(January/February 1997): 50; Moises Naim, “The Five Wars of Globalization,”
Foreign Policy
76 (January/February 2003): 50–66.

4
. Moises Naim,
Illicit: How Smugglers, Traffickers, and Copycats Are Hijacking the Global Economy
(New York: Doubleday, 2005), 5.

5
. Susan Strange,
The Retreat of the State: The Diffusion of Power in the World Economy
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 121.

6
. Phil Williams, “Transnational Organized Crime and the State,” in
The Emergence of Private Authority in Global Governance
, ed. Rodney Bruce Hall and Thomas J. Biersteker (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 161, 165. More recently, see Robert Mandel,
Dark Logic: Transnational Criminal Tactics and Global Security
(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2010).

7
. President’s letter,
Strategy to Combat Transnational Organized Crime: Addressing Converging Threats to National Security
(Washington, DC: White House, 19 July 2011).

8
. This is the subtitle of Naim’s book,
Illicit
.

9
. For a recent critical review of the now-expansive criminological literature in this area, see
Routledge Handbook of Transnational Organized Crime
, Felia Allum and Stan Gilmour, eds. (London: Routledge, 2012). For a nuanced account of the challenges criminal organizations face in expanding their reach across borders, see Federico Varese,
Mafias on the Move: How Organized Crime Conquers New Territories
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011).

10
. The collection of items seized between 16 and 20 November 2009 was captured in more than a thousand photographs by Taryn Simon,
Contraband
(Gottingen, Germany: Steidl, 2010).

11
. The Los Angeles baseball agent Gus Dominguez was indicted in October 2006 for arranging the smuggling of five Cuban baseball players (four pitchers and a shortstop) into the country. He reportedly paid smugglers $225,000 to clandestinely transport the players from Cuba to Florida by boat and then by car to California. The agent auctioned the players off to various Major League Baseball teams. See Michael Lewis, “Commie Ball: A Journey to the End of a Revolution,”
Vanity Fair
, 8 July 2008.

12
. Leslie Wayne, “How Delaware Thrives as a Corporate Tax Haven,”
New York Times
, 30 June 2012. The article quotes Lanny A. Breuer, assistant attorney general for the criminal division of the Justice Department, who claims that “Shells are the No. 1 vehicle for laundering illicit money and criminal proceeds.”

13
. For a detailed account of British Columbia’s booming marijuana export sector, see Misha Glenny,
McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld
(New York: Knopf, 2008),
chapter 10
.

14
. Mark Tran, “Philip Morris reaches $1.25bn EU agreement,”
Guardian
(UK), 9 July 2004. In 1992 Italian authorities also accused Philip Morris of collusion in smuggling and punished the company by banning Marlboro imports. But this only prompted more smuggling, and Italy lifted the ban. Raymond Bonner, “2 Cases Shed Light on Cigarette Smuggling in Italy,”
New York Times
, 2 September 1997.

15
. For a more detailed account, see Peter Andreas and Ethan Nadelmann,
Policing the Globe: Criminalization and Crime Control in International Relations
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).

16
. The arms trade in general, whether licit or illicit, tends to be a shady business, with the United States the world’s most important player. See Andrew Feinstein,
The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade
(New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2011).

17
. David M. Smolin, “Child Laundering: How the Intercountry Adoption System Legitimizes and Incentivizes the Practices of Buying, Trafficking, Kidnapping, and Stealing Children,”
Berkeley Electronic Press Legal Series working paper
, no. 749, August 2005; E. J. Graff, “The Lie We Love,”
Foreign Policy
(November/December 2008); Karen Dubinksy,
Babies
Without Borders: Adoption and Migration Across the Americas
(New York: NYU Press, 2010),
chapter 4
; John Feffer, “The Baby Trade,”
Huffington Post
(21 December 2010); John Leland, “For Adoptive Parents, Questions Without Answers,”
New York Times
, 16 September 2011.

18
. Many, but not all, of the looted items were recovered. See Matthew Bogdanos,
Thieves of Baghdad
(New York: Bloomsbury, 2005).

19
. Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino,
Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the World’s Richest Museum
(New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2011).

20
. See David R. Bewley-Taylor,
International Drug Control: Consensus Fractured
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012). More generally, see Sharon Waxman,
Loot: The Battle over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World
(New York: Times Books, 2008); and Peter Watson and Cecilia Todeschini,
The Medici Conspiracy: The Illicit Journey of Looted Antiquities, from Italy’s Tomb Raiders to the World’s Greatest Museums
(New York: Public Affairs, 2006).

21
. For human trafficking, see the annual
Trafficking in Persons Report
; for drug trafficking, see the annual
International Narcotics Strategy Report
, both produced by the U.S. State Department.

22
. The main international agreement is the 1973 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Flora and Fauna (CITES).

23
. See “The Illegal Parrot Trade in Mexico: A Comprehensive Assessment,”
Defenders of Wildlife
, 14 February 2007. For a broader analysis of the illicit parrot trade, see R. T. Naylor,
Crass Struggle
(Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 2011),
chapter 10
.

24
. Naylor,
Crass Struggle
, 297.

25
. Bryan Christy,
The Lizard King: The True Crimes and Passions of the World’s Greatest Reptile Smugglers
(New York: Twelve, Hachette Book Group, 2009), 144.

26
. Jennifer Steinhauser, “Wildlife Smugglers Test Their Skills, Even at the Airport,”
New York Times
, 6 April 2007.

27
. Rebecca Cathart, “German Charged with Shipping Tarantulas,”
New York Times
, 3 December 2010.

28
. Michel Martin, “In California, Marijuana Dispensaries Outnumber Starbucks,” National Public Radio, 15 October 2009.

29
. Jesse McKinley, “Pat Robertson Says Marijuana Use Should Be Legal,”
New York Times
, 7 March 2012.

30
. On “cybercrime,” see, for example, Misha Glenny,
DarkMarket: Cyberthieves, Cybercops, and You
(New York: Knopf, 2011).

31
. See especially Mathieu DeFlem, “Technology and the Internationalization of Policing: A Comparative Historical Perspective,”
Justice Quarterly
19, no. 3 (September 2002): 453–75.

32
. R. T. Naylor,
Wages of Crime
(Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2002), 5.

33
. See Simon A. Cole,
Suspect Identities: A History of Fingerprinting and Criminal Investigation
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001).

34
. See Jane Kaplan and John Torpey, eds.,
Documenting Individual Identity: State Practices in the Modern World
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001); and Craig Robertson,
The Passport in America: The History of a Document
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2010).

35
. For a general discussion, see David K. Shipler,
The Rights of the People: How Our Search for Security Invades Our Liberties
(New York: Knopf, 2011).

36
. “The Court’s GPS Test,”
New York Times
, 5 November 2011.

37
. On electronic finance, see Eric Helleiner, “Electronic Money: A Challenge to the Sovereign State?”
Journal of International Affairs
51 (1998): 387–409.

38
. Carl Bialik, “Measuring the Child-Porn Trade,”
Wall Street Journal
, 18 April 2006.

39
. Glenny,
DarkMarket
, 266.

40
. For a useful introduction, see Jack M. Balkin et al., eds.,
Cybercrime: Digital Cops in a Networked Environment
(New York: NYU Press, 2007).

41
. Edward Wyatt, “Lines Drawn in Anti-Piracy Bill,”
New York Times
, 14 December, 2011.

42
. Ben Sisario, “7 Charged as F.B.I. Closes a Top File-Sharing Site,”
New York Times
, 19 January 2012.

43
. Eduardo Porter, “The Perpetual War: Pirates and Creators,”
New York Times
, 4 February 2012.

44
. Jenna Wortham, “A Political Coming of Age for the Tech Industry,”
New York Times
, 17 January 2012.

45
. Douglas Quenchia, “An Addiction Vaccine, Tantalizingly Close,”
New York Times
, 4 October 2011.

46
. “Viagra Blackmarket Thriving,” BBC News, 25 February 2000; Ruben Castaneda, “Md. Man Pleads Guilty to Selling Fake Viagra on Craigslist,”
Washington Post
, 30 September 2011; Catherine Humble, “Inside the Fake Viagra Factory,”
Telegraph
(UK), 23 August 2005.

47
. See especially Alfred W. McCoy,
The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade
, 2nd rev. ed. (Chicago: Lawrence Hill, 2003).

48
. Dexter Filkings, Mark Mazzetti, and James Risen, “Brother of Afghan Leader Said to Be Paid by CIA,”
New York Times
, 27 October 2009.

49
. Mark Mazzetti, Scott Shane, and Alissa J. Rubin, “Brutal Haqqani Crime Clan Bedevils U.S. in Afghanistan,”
New York Times
, 24 September 2011.

50
. Dana Thomas,
Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster
(New York: Penguin, 2007),
chapter 9
.

51
. According to a November 2011 U.S. intelligence report, “Chinese actors are the world’s most active and persistent perpetrators of economic espionage,” with much of it done via “internet espionage.” Thom Shanker, “U.S. Report Accuses China and Russia of Internet Spying,”
New York Times
, 3 November 2011.

52
. Naim,
Illicit
, 1.

53
. See Mary Kaldor,
New Wars: Organized Violence in a Global Era
(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999).

54
. See Peter Andreas, “The Criminalizing Consequences of Sanctions: Embargo Busting and Its Legacy,”
International Studies Quarterly
49, no. 2 (2005): 335–60. For a more general discussion, see R. T. Naylor,
Patriots and Profiteers: Economic Warfare, Embargo Busting, and State-Sponsored Crime
, 2nd ed. (Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 2008).