Drug Trafficking: Women Involved in the Illegal Trade - Essay Sample

Introduction

Drug trafficking is a current issue that is significantly affecting society today since the illegal business is continuously running in the country despite various efforts to curb it. The traffickers range from young teenage girls and boys to the nice and welcoming old women and the men; some of the drugs been smuggled include marijuana, heroin, and opiate. Elaine Carey in her book Women Drug Traffickers talks of the issue of drug trafficking and especially by women. In her introduction, she shows how it had severe consequences like criminalization and addiction. Carey describes how some women like Wendt, la Chata, La Nacha and Griselda Blanco were engaged in drug trafficking where they acted as addicts and mules, couriers, bosses as well as money launderers. According to Carey, there were numerous boundaries like understanding what was legitimate, family and gender that restrained and also allowed the women to succeed as discussed below.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Different Borders and How They Restrained the Activities of Women Drug Traffickers and at the Same Time Allowed them to Prosper

There were various ways in which some borders like family and gender restricted and also allowed women to succeed in the business of drug trafficking. Women could easily pass the surveillance since many officials viewed women as people who could not engage themselves in such activities. Many drug smugglers preferred hiring women since they were aware that it was difficult for the officials to search them; hence they could carry out the trafficking and smuggling business with ease. The women could use their bodies to make profits out of the peddling and smuggling business in which they used their luggage's and fashion accessories to hide illegal products. Some of these women include;

Maria Wendt: she is an example of the various women who were involved in the drug trafficking business; she was a mule in a drug trafficking organization which was operated and controlled by men. Wendt was seen as a petite woman who was very stylish; she used the gender border which made her be among the most prominent women drug traffickers between Mexico and the U.S. "As a woman, Wendt maintained that she was simply a mule" (66). She was used as a mule to smuggle drugs like heroin under the pretense that she was carrying silk in her luggage. After been arrested, she agreed that she was a mule used by some people like Mr. and Mrs. Rosendaeal to peddle the drugs into the country for their customers. Being a woman the officers had the perception that Wendt would help them to get all her accomplice involved in the drug trafficking. As a woman, Wendt could easily use the stereotype that women were victims to escape the crime and make the agents favor her.

The officers, therefore, trusted her because of her gender and instead of holding her in jail, she was held in a hotel; however, Wendt used this to her advantage, and she escaped from the hotel; using her gender to her advantage. The only woman who the authorities thought would help them with their investigation slipped away from them. Despite been a fugitive, she was able to escape from the hotel, get a plane ticket, pass through all the customs and immigration borders and even boarded a ship without been caught by the agents. According to her testimony, it can be seen that her gender permitted her to do all this since it is claimed that she was married by a man named Wong who was a Chinese American to enhance her work like a mule. "Wendt used a specific stereotype of women characteristics that they are often used as pawns to resist and undermine authorities in the U.S" (69), and she succeeded in her tactics. Her family and transnational ties made her an exceptional mule despite the many traditional thoughts that prohibited women from engaging in such business.

Lola la Chata: she was an infamous drug peddler and a dominant figure in the illegal narcotic business during the period of collaboration between the U.S. and Mexico to end the illegal drug trade (3).She was a boss, and not just a small-time smuggler or a mule and the profits she gained from the business was just the same as that earned by men. Being a boss in illegal drug trade meant that she had overcome the famous borders of masculine constructs that women could not engage in such business and if it happened, it was as a result of been tricked and lured by male peddlers since they were considered naive and passive. Women were only seen has to be limited to the lowest ranks in the illicit narcotic business, but this did not undermine la Chata. This made her be seen as a deviant of the societal expectations of a civilized woman as well as the belief that women from her class and race could not be wealthy. "la Chata relied on her family relations" (4). This helped her overcome all the constraints which were placed on her as a woman even though the policymakers tried to use her ethnicity and femininity to undermine her.

She was very familiar with the business since her mother was also a drug seller and especially Marijuana and she also used her like a mule. She used sexual connections and family relationships to build her illicit trade empire. She even got married to Enrique Jaramillo who was an ex-police officer and used his mechanic shop as a distribution center; she was also provided with protection and invaluable networks by the police who she was in contact with. Her marriage helped her succeed in the drug trade business since it offered her cover making it hard to be caught by the authorities, "she noticed that family ties and relationships could enable women to succeed in the illicit trade carried out by men" (15) and decided to use this to her advantage.

La Nacha also called matriarch Jasso: she was also a popular boss in drug trafficking who rose during World War II, she trafficked and peddled drugs like morphine, marijuana, and heroin. Growing up in the border made her aware of the several ways drugs could be smuggled between U.S. and Mexico. "another familial dynasty took from beginning in the early 1920s" (2). La Nacha and her family had a sophisticated know how on the drug business across the border, their location made them to easily take advantage of the legal and illegal flow of information, products, and people. She used the family to manipulate government officials, the public as well as the press. "Jasso demonstrated the importance of family in building her drug empire" (4). All of her family members played a significant role in the distribution of narcotics. La Nacha even brought her children into the illegal trade, she also got help from some politicians and police, and this made it easier for her to find means of getting out of prison.

She had several agents both men and women who helped her in smuggling drugs into the U.S. and also various customers in distant places like San Francisco and New York. When she was arrested in 1942, and the government planned to extradite her, some people supported her by arguing that she was only a widow who only sold clothes and grew cotton to support her children. However, it was her marriage that enhanced her growth in the drug business; she viewed the illicit trade as the only way she could keep her family. Instead of relegating her to an apprentice, her marriage to Pablote enhanced her illicit trade skills. Women could easily succeed because according to the popular culture they could live like middle-class people hence not drawing too much attention from the outside world to their family and business. She sold the drugs at her business as well as from her house with her legitimate business helping her to cover up the illegal drug business. Even though the culture considered such works to be associated with men, La Nacha did not give up since she had "extended multigenerational peddling and trafficking family" (55).

Griselda Blanco: she was a supplier at the New York drug market and an innovator of cocaine trafficking. Blanco used her gender to establish great alliances with highly connected and rich men to help her in the illicit trade. She also used violence which is against the gender expectations of a woman to protect her and her lover, and this enabled them to escape from custody and prison. Although women were viewed as weak by men, Blanco used violence as an offensive tool to all his men employees as well as her male competitors; she was even described as "a homicidal Colombian Godmother" (42). During that time, women were only given the status of mothers or as just procreators, however, instead of breaking Blanco, such traumas and personal difficulties like the assumed rejection from her mother and an alleged rape molded her into the violent woman she came to be. She was a drug trafficker boss who had several employees including women to act as her distributors, couriers, and mules. As a woman, she had different channels and social networks including her relationship with Trujillo and Luis Alberto Bravo; these two men had a significant impact on her life. Her profound success in the illicit drug trafficking business was comparable to that of various prominent male traffickers.

Conclusion

Although the illegal drug trafficking business has been known to be dominated by men, these women like Lola la Chata demonstrated that it is not dominated by men entirely. They did anything including the use of violence like Griselda Blanco to succeed. The desire to have a luxurious life, gender cultural beliefs and families are some of the major factors that motivated women to join the illegal trade business.