NCJ Number
195892
Journal
Journal of Drug Issues Volume: 31 Issue: 4 Dated: Fall 2001 Pages: 1007-1038
Editor(s)
Bruce Bullington
Date Published
2001
Length
32 pages
Annotation
This article reports that today in Russia drug users can buy the same illicit psychoactive drugs that can be found in any Western European or North American city and addresses the question of whether drug trafficking in Russia is the domain of organized crime or merely an organized crime activity carried out by a plurality of independent actors.
Abstract
This article reports that today, and over the past 10 years in Russia, drug users can buy the same illicit psychoactive drugs that can be found in any Western European or North American city and addresses the question of whether drug trafficking in Russia is the domain of organized crime or merely an organized crime activity carried out by a plurality of independent actors. Ninety in-depth interviews with different types of experts and 15 drug users and dealers were carried out in 9 cities, plus a sample of newly obtained drug-related criminal cases and intelligence documents were analyzed. It was found that the idea that drug trafficking was dominated in Russia by large, structured criminal groups, was scarcely supported in law enforcement statistical data but rather was characterized by a low level of sophistication and organization. In terms of avoiding law enforcement consequences, it appears that incorporating drug transactions into kinship and friendship networks (groups defined by ethnic characteristics, by age, and as "ordinary people,") and reducing the number of customers and employees were the most frequent strategies employed by drug dealers. It is concluded that due to the constraints of product illegality in Russia, there is no imminent likelihood of the creation of large scale modern bureaucracies, such as a Russian drug mafia, as has been thought. Tables, references