Drug Trafficking, Sell gold, and smuggling

For decades heroin trafficking in the United States was controlled principally by traditional organized crime groups that lived and operated inside the country. In a drug-trafficking network that became known as the French Connection, New York City–based Mafia “Families” purchased heroin from Corsican sources working with French sailors operating from Marseilles to transship the drug directly to the United States.

The heroin was distributed throughout the United States by other Mafia Families to street-level dealers working in low-income, minority communities. However, in 1972 French and U.S. drug agents effectively dismantled the French Connection, ending the domestic Mafia’s monopoly on heroin distribution in the United States. Talking about drug trafficking are not far away with the smuggled. As matter of fact smuggling are various not just sell gold and cocaine but many others that could add some cash.

The demise of the French Connection coupled with the subsequent emergence of criminal syndicates based in Colombia marked a significant evolution in the international drug trade. These new traffickers introduced cocaine into the United States on a massive scale, launching unparalleled waves of drug crimes and violence. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s the international crime syndicates continued to increase their wealth and dominance over the U.S. drug trade, overshadowing the domestic Mafia Families.

Today, traffic in illegal drugs at the highest wholesale levels is controlled by international organized crime syndicates from Colombia, Mexico, and other countries. From their headquarters overseas, foreign drug lords produce and distribute unprecedented volumes of cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin.

The international nature of the drug business is highlighted by the 2006 seizure by Colombian authorities of tons of potassium permanganate, a chemical that is necessary for producing cocaine, that was being smuggled from the Republic of Korea to Colombia by Korean nationals.

These traffickers maintain tight control of their workers through highly compartmentalized cell structures that separate production, shipment, distribution, money laundering, communications, security, and recruitment. Traffickers have at their disposal the most technologically advanced aircraft, boats, vehicles, radar, communications equipment, and weapons that money can buy. They have also established vast counterintelligence capabilities and transportation networks. There is also the connection between drug trafficking and terrorism.