Drug
Dealing
Overview
: Police and Authorities
Overview : Drug Dealer
Overview : Drug Supplier
Overview : End User
Overview : Products and Manufacturers
Overview : Funds and Profit
The Need for Security
Overview
: Police and Authorities
The majority of operations against drug dealers are initiated by anonymous
tips. To that purpose the police and authorities advertise special phone
numbers where anyone can report drug activities. In a lot of these cases
the person giving the tip off to the police is usually another drug dealer
or supplier who has a personal or business grudge. The police do require
evidence to prosecute their target and this can be posession of illegal
drugs, or the recorded solicitation by a dealer attempting to sell his
goods.
Overview
: Drug Dealer
The drug dealer could be considered as the person running the tactics
of the drug supplier. The dealer usually purchases his wares from the
supplier at substantially lower rates than street prices and always in
semi-bulk quantities. The bulk of the risk of a drug operation is definitely
taken by the dealer, this is because he or she is the one who is exposed
to the highest number of people in public and are particularly prone to
police sting operations. For them drug dealing serves several purposes;
primarily to feed their habit with the acquirement of recreational drugs
like Cannabis (Marijuana) at lower prices and secondarily to generate
funds. The funds generated are usually very small in comparison to the
illegal income of the supplier. One advantageous result of a dealer's
activities is that he gains substantial social activities in the group
he supplies, especially true in the case of 'the female who will do anything
for drugs'.
Overview
: Drug Suppliers
Drug Suppliers are the strategic proponents of the common scenario. They
benefit with huge illegal incomes by selling their grown or manufactured
products to the dealers for distribution. They usually have to take great
steps to enhance security. The primary motive of the supplier is an income
and the smarter suppliers would usually run their operation as a business.
A lot of suppliers start operating simply by growing a large quantity
of Cannabis plants. They can usually do this because they live in a remote
area, sparsely populated and where there is very little police activity.
Responsibility is taken by them to process their product into usable form
and delivery to the dealers. A few major hindrances to the supplier is
that he cannot declare his income through conventional techniques and
usually has to launder his funds into usable form.
Overview
: End User
The very well known motives of the end user are to purchase for a recreational
high, something that is catered for by drug dealers. Users usually exist
in the same group as that of the dealer, as his friends they trust him
and that leads to purchases. The dealer will have many user groups like
this and it is therefore not surprising that users regularly purchase
in groups gathering their funds together so that they could get a better
deal out of their purchase. Users can be targetted by police in smaller
sting operations when a police officer would trap users attempting a purchase.
The common scenario of the user is a group of party goers who purchase
the more common substances such as cannabis and ecstacy for their weekend
activities. More uncommonly that same group usually buys hard drugs such
as cocaine and heroin for special occasions.
Overview
: Products & Manufacturers
Cannabis and Ecstacy dominate the drug dealing market today. They are
the cheapest of drugs and for that purpose are easily acquired by users.
Cannabis is the dominant drug of choice by suppliers because it is easy
to grow and process while ecstacy has to be acquired from manufacturers
in bulk. The disadvantage that dealers and suppliers face with these is
that they occupy a lot of space for the price they take. 1 gram of cannabis
can cost $10 so to generate $10,000 a supplier would need to transport
1000 grams or 1 Kilogram of this to the dealers. Simply speaking the bigger
the product the more difficult it is to conceal. That is one advantage
that hardcore drugs such as heroin and cocaine have; a gram of heroin
could go for $100 roughly speaking and so to generate $10,000 only 100
grams would have to be transported. For the bulk of suppliers Heroin and
Cocaine are too difficult to manufacture on their own so they would have
to buy them from manufacturers. These hardcore drugs also carry a stiffer
sentence to the supplier if his operation is exposed by the authorities.
Overview
: Funds and Profit
To imagine how much a supplier earns out of his operation the process
of selling cannabis is displayed; a supplier can purcahse a bag of high
quality active cannabis seeds of a generic strain for $10 from the Netherlands.
One seed is planted and whithin 6 - 8 weeks develops itself into a ripe
plant. The leaves of this plant are cut off and dried into 100 grams of
cannabis (very roughly speaking). This is sold to the dealers at the discounted
price of $6 per gram which in turn are sold to the user for $10 per gram.
Thus one seed generates $1000 !! If the supplier successfully plants and
sells all 10 seeds his income is $6000. If he would like to plant 100
seeds that would cost $100 he generates $60,000 of income for eight weeks
of work.
The need
for security
The displayed income of the dealer outlines the need for physical security.
Because his large income is illegal and he cannot report it the supplier
would need a security team to safegaurd his funds especially during transfers.
His security team would also act as a force of gaurantee during purchases
and sales. Imagine it this way; If a supplier would like to sell 1 kilogram
of cannabis to a dealer and there is no security there is nothing stopping
the dealer stealing the 1 kilogram without paying for it. It is a business
plagued by dishonor by its nature and trust is usually superficial between
dealers and suppliers because the funds involved are very large and cannot
be reported as stolen. It is less of a problem between the dealer and
user as their transactions are small, even though the dealers frequently
take advantage of users. Further to physical security and intelligence
system is usually deployed to handle the possiblity of informants in the
supplier's network. The larger the funds involved the bigger the security
apparatus and this can usually develop from one or two unarmed bodygaurds/friends
to an armed security team of soldiers for hire headed by an intelligence
officer.
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