Finding the Sweet Spot: Optimizing Criminal Careers within the Context of Illicit Enterprise

ABSTRACT

This article presents a framework for understanding three different strata within the context of illicit enterprise – being low hanging fruit, occupying the “sweet spot,” and being the big enchilada. It shows that within each stratum, there is a progression of opportunity that contributes to criminal actors’ motivations to proceed with their criminal careers. Each progressing stratum has a significant barrier to entry that, once overcome, signals a state where risk, income potential, and stability change significantly. Nonetheless, illicit entrepreneurs continue to attempt to progress as long as they believe that opportunity is consistent, and the risk involved is acceptable. To that end, many criminal entrepreneurs who are successful in prolonging their criminal careers seek to occupy the “sweet spot,” a position characterized by four outcomes: minimizing risk to reward, achieving low visibility, developing a comparative advantage in their illicit industry that, in turn, gives them independence, and economic stability.

Acknowledgments

The author gratefully acknowledges the helpful feedback provided on previous drafts by Sandra Walklate, Richard K. Moule, Jr., and anonymous reviewers. Any mistakes are my own.

Notes

¹ Single organizations rarely control entire supply chains except in narrowly specialized, niche, and/or small-volume operations. One organization that came close to having a vertical supply chain was the Herrera Organization that supplied heroin products from Mexico to Chicago. See: Lupsha, Peter and Kip Schlegel (1980). “The Political Economy of Drug Trafficking: The Herrera Organization (Mexico and the United States).”

² While some respondents may report large revenue generation, the relative risk they continue to accept is high compared to the risk faced by individuals further up the supply chain.

³ The majority of Barrio Azteca’s gang membership is split between Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, and El Paso, Texas. Emiliano is clarifying that he was in charge of elements in El Paso, not in Juárez.

⁴ A “plug” is a supplier of wholesale quantities of illegal drugs; also referred to as a “connect.”

⁵ Here, “Mexican” is shorthand for any Hispanic. This person could be Mexican-American, Mexican, or a Spanish-speaking person from another Latin American country.

⁶ Somebody who is moving large, wholesale quantities of drugs.

⁷ Is under a lot of police attention.

⁸ Arrested.

⁹ Patched, i.e. ranking gang member.

¹⁰ See “plug,” footnote 5.

¹¹ When the drug wholesalers needed me to move drugs again.

¹² Residential advisor, usually a student who is in charge of overseeing a floor in a dormitory.

Additional information

Funding

The author was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) as a doctoral student at Cardiff University and additionally by an ESRC Overseas Research Travel Grant.

Notes on contributors

R. V. Gundur

R. V. Gundur is a lecturer at Flinders University. He is also a research associate at the Institute of Irish Studies at The University of Liverpool. He has a PhD in Criminology from Cardiff University and an MA in International Relations from the Australian National University. His research examines illicit enterprise, including the illicit drug trade and protection markets, prison gangs, and cybercrime. He is the prize chair for the International Association for the Study of Organized Crime (IASOC).