Women Drug Traffickers

by Elaine Carey

  80. Testimony of Colonel Homer Garrison Jr., director of Department of Public Safety, State of Texas, Hearing, Illicit Narcotics Traffic, 2366.

  81. Testimony of Perry Milton Turner, Hearing, Illicit Narcotics Traffic, 2371–81.

  82. Testimony of W. E. Naylor, chief of Narcotics Division of Public Safety, State of Texas, Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Improvements in the Federal Code of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-Fourth Congress, Illicit Narcotics Traffic, 2381.

  83. Testimony of Perry Milton Turner, 2371–81.

  84. Bureau of Customs, Memorandum to the Subcommittee on Narcotics of the Senate Judiciary, October 10, 1955.

  85. Roark, The Coin of Contraband.

  86. Statement of Pura Rodríguez Pérez, Hearing, Illicit Narcotics Trade, 2957.

  87. Testimony of E. W. Biscailuz, sheriff of Los Angeles County, accompanied by Undersheriff Peter J. Pitchess and Captain K. E. Irving, narcotic chief, Los Angeles Police Department, November 15, 1955, Los Angeles, Hearing, Illicit Narcotics Traffic, 3677–96.

  88. The situation has changed; presently, most female addicts in Tijuana are of Mexican descent. Moreover, those who are users engage in riskier behaviors. See Steffanie A. Strathdee et al., “Correlates of Injection Drug Use Among Female Sex Workers in Two Mexico-U.S. Border Cities,” Drug and Alcohol Dependence 92, nos. 1–3 (January 2008): 132–40.

  89. Testimony of Mickey Wallace, Los Angeles, November 15, 1955, Hearing, Illicit Narcotics Traffic, 3713.

  90. Ibid.

  91. Testimony of Oscar Palm, Los Angeles, accompanied by Harry M. Umann, Los Angeles, his counsel, November 15, 1955, 3594–605 and 3605–19; testimony of Rae V. Vader, customs agent in charge, San Diego, Bureau of Customs, accompanied by Richard L. McCowan, customs inspector, November 15, 1955, Hearing, Illicit Narcotics Trade.

  92. Ibid.

  93. Taxi drivers on both sides of the border procured drugs and prostitutes for their clients. Historically, they have played a key role in the drug industry and the underworld. See Anthony Joseph Stanonis, Creating the Big Easy: The Emergence of Modern Tourism, 1918–1945 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2006), 117–20; Graham Russell Gao Hodges, Taxi: A Social History of the New York City Cabdriver (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007); and Robert P. Stephens, Germans on Drugs: The Complications of Modernization in Hamburg (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2007). Trains have a long history as central vessels for drug running. In the 1960s and 1970s, people moved marijuana across the border and loaded it onto trains. Trains and those who worked on them became a focus of drug running early on. In 1916, at a meeting of the State Association of Judges and Justices held in New York, one judge argued that Pullman Porters were running drugs from Canada into the United States. See “Opiates Shipped Illegally to Canada,” Pharmaceutical Era 49 (January–December 1916): 493. In Mexico, two railroad conductors wrote to President Adolfo Ruiz Cortines about inspectors using the trains to smuggle heroin into the United States. Alfonso Gutierrez and Marcos Acosta García to Adolfo Ruiz Cortines, box 423, July 30, 1953, AGN. Kathy Burke, an NYPD narcotics agent in 1968, told me that the train routes from south to north were a prime corridor for moving drugs from Mexico to New York. Kathy Burke, telephone interview with the author, February 4, 2011.

  94. The role of women involved in prostitution who also sold narcotics appears in many works. See Alan Block, “Aw, Your Mother’s in the Mafia: Women Criminals in Progressive New York,” Crime Law and Social Change 1, no. 1 (December 1976): 5–22, and Timothy Gilfoyle, City of Eros: New York City, Prostitution, and the Commercialization of Sex, 1790–1920 (New York: W. W. Norton, 1992).

  95. Quoted in Howard Campbell, “Female Drug Smugglers on the U.S.-Mexico Border,” 238.

  96. Howard Campbell, Drug War Zone, 60–75.

  97. Memo to H. J. Anslinger from Thomas W. Andrew, June 11, 1962, file Mexican Cooperation, box 23, RG170, BNDD-DEA.

  98. Wayland L. Speer, acting commissioner of narcotics, to Mr. A. Gilmore Fluez, assistant secretary of the treasury, August 26, 1960; Ernest M. Gentry to H. J. Anslinger, June 7, 1962; Thomas W. Andrew to H. J. Anslinger, June 11, 1962; and George H. Gafiney, “Survey of the Southwest Border,” RG 170, BNDD-DEA. See also Astorga, Drogas sin fronteras, 91–92. For a discussion about cocaine familial enterprises, see Paul Gootenberg, “The ‘Pre-Colombian’ Era of Drug Trafficking in the Americas: Cocaine, 1945–1965,” Americas 64, no. 2 (October 2007): 133–76.

  99. Organized Crime and Illicit Traffic in Narcotics, Hearing Before the Permanent Subcommittee on Government Operations, United States Senate, Eighty-Eighth Congress, July 24, 1964, vol. 4, 5, 1145.

  100. Ibid., 907.

  101. Eduardo Amador-González v. United States, no. 2348, United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, January 10, 1968. Rehearing denied February 23, 1968.

  102. “Mexican Crash Victim Identified,” El Paso Times, November 27, 1973.

  103. Josiah McC. Heyman, “U.S. Ports of Entry on the Mexican Border,” in On the Border, ed. Wood, 222. Peter Andreas notes the symbiotic relationship between smugglers and states, arguing that it is the perception that smuggling (of goods or people) is a “growing threat that is most critical for sustaining and expanding law enforcement.” See Peter Andreas, “Smuggling Wars: Law Enforcement and Law Evasion in a Changing World,” in Transnational Crime in the Americas, ed. Tom Farer (New York: Routledge, 1999), 94. Moisés Naím similarly argues that the focus on supplier countries is “politically profitable,” and the required tools such as “helicopters, gunboats, heavily armed agents, judges, and generals” are more “telegenic” than those tools that would be required to address demand. See Naím, Illicit, 234–35.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  1. Kenney, From Pablo to Osama.

  2. Nadelmann, Cops Across Borders.

  3. For a history of cocaine, see Gootenberg, ed., Cocaine; Gootenberg, Andean Cocaine; and Spillane, Cocaine.

  4. Kenney, From Pablo to Osama.

  5. Alfred W. McCoy, The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade (Chicago, IL: Lawrence Hill, 2003); and Gootenberg, Andean Cocaine.

  6. The highly fluid flows of cocaine have been documented in popular culture and scholarly works. See Ted Demme’s film Blow; Peter Dale Scott and Jonathan Marshall, Cocaine Politics: Drugs, Armies, and the CIA in Central America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998); and Arias, Drugs and Democracy in Rio de Janeiro.

  7. “No Antiwoman Job Bias in the Narcotics Trade,” New York Times, April 22, 1975.

  8. See McCoy, The Politics of Heroin.

  9. Task Force Report: Narcotics, Marijuana, and Dangerous Drugs, Special Presidential Task Force report, June 6, 1969. National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, White House Special Files: Staff Members and Office Files, Egil Krogh, box 30, “Operation Intercept,” at http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB86/, accessed July 10, 2012.

  10. Kelly Lytle Hernández, Migra! A History of the U.S. Border Patrol (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010); and Rachel St. John, Line in the Sand: A History of the Western U.S.-Mexico Border (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2011).

  11. Task Force Report: Narcotics, Marijuana, and Dangerous Drugs, 21–26.

  12. White House memorandum, June 18, 1969, White House Central Files: Subject Files, FG 221, box 5, National Archives; see also National Security Archive.

  13. “Action Task Force” Narcotics, Marihuana and Dangerous Drugs, White House memorandum, June 27, 1969, White House Central Files: Subject Files, FG 221, box 5, National Security Archive.

  14. See Lawrence A. Gooberman, Operation Intercept: The Multiple Consequences of Public Policy (New York: Pergamon Press, 1974).

  15. G. Gordon Liddy, Will: The Autobiography of G. Gordon Liddy (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1980), 135. A veteran and former FBI agent, Liddy served in the Nixon administration and was involved in the Watergate scandal.

  16. David Brand, “Operati
on Intercept Turns Up Little Dope and Lots of Resentment,” Wall Street Journal, October 3, 1969.

  17. Editorial, Excélsior, October 8, 1969.

  18. Felix Belair Jr., “Operation Intercept: Success on Land, Futility in the Air,” New York Times, October 2, 1969.

  19. Carey, Plaza of Sacrifices.

  20. Salazar, Border Correspondent, 238–39.

  21. For a discussion of these influences, see Carey, Plaza of Sacrifices; Tanalís Padilla, Rural Resistance in the Land of Zapata: The Jaramillista Movement and the Myth of the Pax Priísta, 1940–1962 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2008); and Fernando Herrera Calderón and Adela Cedillo, eds., Challenging Authoritarianism in Mexico: Revolutionary Struggles and the Dirty War, 1964–1982 (New York: Routledge, 2012).

  22. “Operation Cooperation,” BNDD Bulletin, May–June 1970. In 1968, the FBN merged with the Bureau of Drug Abuse Control (BDAC) to form the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD) under the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. John Ingersoll directed the new bureau.

  23. See “Notable Cases,” a regular feature in the BNDD Bulletin.

  24. DEA History 1970–1975, at http://www.justice.gov/dea/pubs/history/1970–1975.html, accessed January 28, 2011. See also U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, “Drug Enforcement Administration: A Tradition of Excellence, 1973–2008” (Washington, D.C: DEA, 2008).

  25. See Calderón and Cedillo, eds., Challenging Authoritarianism in Mexico; and Alberto Ulloa Bornemann, Surviving Mexico’s Dirty War: A Political Prisoner’s Memoir (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2007).

  26. For a discussion on contemporary guerrilla groups that sprang from Partido de los Pobres, see Gustavo Hirales Morán, “Radical Groups in Mexico Today,” Center for Strategic and International Studies, Policy Papers on the Americas 14 (September 2003).

  27. Gustavo Hirales Morán, “La guerra secreta, 1970–78,” Nexos 34 (June 1982): 36. Hirales was a militant with the Liga Comunista 23 de Septiembre (Communist League of September 23). See also his La liga comunista 23 de septiembre: orígenes y naufragio (Mexico City: Ediciones de Cultura Popular, 1977).

  28. Hirales Morán, “La guerra secreta”; and Barry Carr, Marxism and Communism in Twentieth-Century Mexico (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992), 267. See also Calderón and Cedillo, eds., Challenging Authoritarianism in Mexico.

  29. Dirección Federal Seguridad, Narcóticos, Investigaciones Confidencial y asuntos policías, 17-0-1970, H49, AGN. It should be noted that the files on drugs and the guerrillas are heavily controlled. My attempts to see complete files of young people arrested for narcotics violations as well as for having subversive materials were met with obstacles. Having worked with an archivist and having accessed the files previously, I knew that the collection contained material on drug arrests. I was given limited access to certain case files, and I was not permitted to review other relevant case files. When I requested to see other material, I was allowed to review one page of a substantial file. I believe this is due to the recognized link between the Mexican Federal Security Directorate (DFS) and prominent drug traffickers.

  30. Dirección Federal Seguridad, Narcoticos, Investigaciones Confidencial y asuntos policías, 17-0-1971, AGN.

  31. Dirección Federal Seguridad, Narcoticos, Investigaciones Confidencial y asuntos policías, 11-235-1973, AGN.

  32. Paul Kenny, Mónica Serrano, and Arturo Sotomayor, Mexico’s Security Failures: Collapse into Criminal Violence (New York: Routledge, 2011).

  33. Arnoldo Martínez Verdugo, ed., Historia del comunismo en México (Mexico City: Grijalbo, 1985). Also see Juan Miguel de Mora, Las guerrillas en México y Jenaro Vázquez Rojas (Mexico City: Editora Latino Americana, 1972).

  34. Sergio Tamayo, “The Twenty Mexican Octobers: A Study of Citizenship and Social Movements” (PhD diss., University of Texas, 1994), 221.

  35. Tim Weiner, “Mexico Indicts Former Chief of Secret Police,” New York Times, March 30, 2003.

  36. Kenny, Serrano, and Sotomayor, Mexico’s Security Failures. A number of articles in this volume deal with policing and police corruption.

  37. Dirección Federal Seguridad, Narcóticos, Investigaciones Confidencial y asuntos policías, 100-23-1-1976, AGN.

  38. Carey, Plaza of Sacrifices.

  39. “Mexico Join, Smash Drug Ring,” Desert News, May 16, 1970.

  40. Ibid.

  41. “U.S.-Mexico Force Breaks Drug Ring,” New York Times, May 17, 1970.

  42. “No Antiwoman Job Bias in the Narcotics Trade,” New York Times, April 22, 1975.

  43. “Heroin Smuggling Ring Broken Up in Prison,” Windsor (Ontario) Star, October 20, 1974.

  44. For more information on the FBI’s surveillance of the Mexican Mafia in the 1970s, see FBI Freedom of Information and Privacy Act, Mexican Mafia, parts 1–2, at http://foia.fbi.gov/mafia_mexican/mafia_mexican_part01.pdf, accessed December 20, 2010.

  45. There are many sensational docudramas about the Mexican Mafia on television. Tony Rafael, author of The Mexican Mafia (New York: Encounter Books, 2007), addresses the organization and how it operates, but he does not delve into the historical formation of the gang.

  46. Glen E. Pommerening, U.S. Department of Justice, to Victor Love, Director of the U.S. General Accounting Office, August 5, 1970, published in Report to the Congress, Efforts to Stop Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Coming From and Through Mexico and Central America, December 31, 1974.

  47. Article 2, Ley Federal contra la Delincuencia Organizada, 1996. English translation by John Bailey and Jorge Chabat, in “Public Security and Democratic Governance: Challenges to Mexico and the United States,” The Mexico Project (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University, 2001).

  48. Law enforcement adapted, too, as more women were recruited to become narcotics agents. Kathy Burke, telephone interview with the author, February 4, 2011. When Burke began to work for the NYPD’s Narcotics Division, she was one of three women there. She mentioned that the first female narcotics agents entered the NYPD in the 1950s. Narcotics served as a place where underrepresented people entered the police force in order to penetrate the organized crime entities of different ethnic groups. Paul Chu, cofounder, the Jade Society, interview with the author, February 9, 2011. Asian American officers also worked undercover in narcotics in Chinatown and other areas of the city.

  49. Yolanda Sarmiento testimony, United States v. Joseph Anthony Martinez-Carcano, United States District Court, Southern District of New York, 76 CR-965; and United States v. Joseph Anthony Martinez-Carcano, United States Court of Appeals for the Second District, folder 77-1041. To understand Sarmiento’s role in transnational trafficking, I relied on these case files. Sarmiento was the subject of multiple indictments and court cases, such as United States v. Yolanda Sarmiento, Eastern District of New York, 72 CR-1260, 74 CR-492, 74 CR-11, and 74 CR-493; and United States v. Yolanda Sarmiento, Southern District of New York, 74 CR-472. Despite my efforts and those of the archivists at NARA-NYC and the file clerks at the Southern District Court to locate these files on Sarmiento, all turned out to be missing.

  50. For a discussion of the Corsican emergence in heroin smuggling, see McCoy, The Politics of Heroin, 46–76; and Alexander Stille, Excellent Cadavers: The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic (New York: Vintage, 1996).

  51. Robin Moore, The French Connection: A True Account of Cops, Narcotics, and International Conspiracy, 13th ed. (New York: Lyon Press, 2003); and William Friedkin, The French Connection, 20th Century Fox, 1971.

  52. For discussion of the Corsican trafficking organizations, see McCoy, The Politics of Heroin.

  53. Chile and Argentina always had vibrant domestic wine industries, but the countries’ international market was minimal prior to the 1970s.

  54. United States v. Anthony Torres and Roberto Rivera, no. 751, July 2, 1975.

  55. United States v. Joseph Anthony Martinez-Carcano, 52.

  56. “No Antiwoman Job Bias in the Narcotics Trade,” New York Times, April
22, 1975.

  57. “12 Charged Here in a World Plot to Import Heroin,” New York Times, December 13, 1972.

  58. “12 in Police Narcotic Unit Charged with Corruption,” New York Times, March 9, 1974. This case led to a series of investigations into the NYPD. New police officers were recruited and trained to replace those who had been indicted for corruption in a number of cases in the early 1970s. Many of the new recruits had military experience and either held university degrees or were attending college when they were recruited by the NYPD. Anonymous former NYPD narcotics agent (active on the force in the 1970s), interview with the author.

  59. Morris Kaplan, “Frogman Is Among 9 Persons Convicted of Cocaine Smuggling,” New York Times, December 21, 1971.

  60. Michael Levine, The Big White Lie: The Deep Cover Operation That Exposed the CIA Sabotage of the Drug War (Emeryville, CA: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1994).

  61. Peter Axthelm and Anthony Marro, “The Drug Vigilantes,” Newsweek, April 16, 1976.

  62. “Drug Suspect’s Bail Raised $1 Million, up to $3.5 Million,” New York Times, May 29, 1976.

  63. Ibid.

  64. Levine, The Big White Lie, 20–21.

  65. Max H. Seigel, “3 Major Drug Suspects Are Arrested at Kennedy,” New York Times, May 28, 1976.

  66. United States v. Joseph Anthony Martinez-Carcano, 387–88. Martinez-Carcano had worked on the Polaris missile while working for Grumman Aircraft.

  67. United States v. Joseph Anthony Martinez-Carcano; and United States v. Joseph Anthony Martinez-Carcano, United States Court of Appeals for the Second District, folder 77-1041.

  68. Ibid., stenographer’s transcript, 296–302, 547–65.

  69. Ibid., 408–9.

  70. Ibid., 50–60.

  71. Ibid., 58–60.

  72. United States v. Joseph Anthony Martinez-Carcano, 410–80.

  73. Ibid.

  74. Quoted in Max H. Seigel, “3 Major Drug Suspects Are Arrested at Kennedy,” New York Times, May 28, 1976.