Drug crimes come in many form. Drug manufacturing, possessing, use and trafficking are the most common forms of drug crimes. Of these, drug trafficking has come into maximum limelight because of its treacherous nature, drug mafia wars and prominent arrests.

USA has some of the harshest drug laws in the world. Our agencies and institutions are very tough on drug crimes and getting drugs across US borders is one of the riskiest jobs, an individual involved in a drug circle can undertake. Has that deterred the drug mafia? Has that cured the drug addicts? The answer is not in the affirmative, but what the curbs and controls have resulted in is another dangerous trend cropping up in the recent years. The drug trade has usually been associated with men; it has not been a domain of the females. And taking advantage of this stereotype, drug lords are bringing in more and more women into the trade and using them as scapegoats to further their business.

When we say drug trafficking, Latin America surfaces into our minds automatically. The Columbias and Mexicos are the forbidden land of drugs for us and correctly so. Now, let me acquaint you with some facts. A report by New York Times in 2007 claimed Mexico had witnessed a 400 percent increase in the number of women jailed for activity mostly linked to organized crime.

A study conducted in 2010 reported that the number of women in Latin American prisons involved in drug crimes was much higher than the men incarcerated for drug crimes, though overall the number of men in the prison were higher.

Are women really the new warriors in the ongoing drug wars? No, they are the new scapegoats. Race and sex have been the two factors that mankind has exploited forever for their own gains. More and more female names and faces are emerging in this murky trade. Is the power and mystery of this so far male-dominated terrain suddenly appealing to them?

This might be the case for a small segment of women in this trade, but mostly it is desperation and tragedy that brings their introduction to the business.

A Wrecked Life Post the Death of a Bread Earner

Circumstances compel you to take certain steps some times. More so when you have mouths to feed and have just lost a husband, boyfriend, brother or father who was the sole bread earner. Many women who are currently active in the business entered the business as the last resort. When the man of the house got killed or arrested in the ongoing drug wars and arrest, the woman took over his place in a lot of situations. This was not a choice but a compulsion. Being in the domain of drug dealers you are already under suspicion. Most women of such families especially when they are poor have not been educated properly and sources of employment are almost nil for them. The drug world provides an easy access to them and it is a world they are already acquainted with. They enter it as the only source of income and take up some of the riskiest jobs in their hour of need.

A Desire to Have an Opulent Lifestyle

Most women involved in the drug business come from the weakest and poorest sections of the society. Blood, loss and poverty have been their constant companions. The drug route is the easiest route to get some money and get an opulent and happy lifestyle for themselves and their families. The vulnerability and innocence of many such girls are exploited in the process and they become complete scape-goats in this dirty business.

Becoming a mule for the drug lords, they deliver some of the most dangerous drugs to USA and other countries. Human mules are the one of the most gory and dangerous face of the drug business. It took a movie like a Maria Full of Grace for us regular Americans to actually wake up and see what a mule really does.

With securities getting tighter and drugs in luggage, bags, footwear and those strapped to the body being detected and caught, emerged the new way of trafficking drugs. A human mule is one who carries the dangerous drugs in his body, that is, uses his own body as a container to carry the drugs.

Most often these human mules are women. They are less likely to come under suspicion and more willing to do it. So, they swallow latex balloons made of condoms and rubber gloves or special drug pellets that reside in their gastrointestinal tract or other body cavities. If they are unable to swallow, these pellets are often inserted into their body through their vagina.

Painful, humiliating and immensely risky are the only words to describe what they do, but they do it inspite of the risks. Sometimes it is an unwed mother doing it for her child, sometimes it is a young girl doing it to get her parents out of the abject poverty. What binds them is their vulnerability and shared hope for a better future.

The Future Is Not Bright

The tragedy is that not all of these girls manage to have the bright future in the land of opportunity that they are lured with and promised. Many times the pills or pellets explode in their stomach and they may die of an overdose. On the other hand ,being caught takes you towards a miserable life and several years in an overcrowded prison. The bright future they hope for themselves and their family gets drowned somewhere in the deep darkness of the drug world. When a drug mule dies in the process of transporting the drugs and their body is found by the drug traffickers, they are cut open to recover the drugs. The bodies are then disposed away without a burial and the families are not informed.

The Other Cousin- The Flesh Trade

When a criminal activity flourishes, it rarely flourishes by itself. It gives a great push to other illegal activities as well. Women are always the weak link in these activities and their fragile social and economic standing always exploited. With crackdowns becoming common and the law becoming stricter towards drug crime, what emerges as the other option for such vulnerable and in-need women and girls is prostitution and sex-trafficking. A research claims that these industries present an alternative industry when government security on drug trafficking operations increases. These are extremely high-profit industries and when the noose tightens around one illegal industry, the other grows rapidly. The result, huge profits for the ones in control and more women pushed into the flesh trade.

The Bitter Truth

So while we may associate the dirty and dangerous face of drug crimes with the Latin American countries, because it is majorly produced there and the dealers are there, the truth is, this industry exists because we exist. Drugs are being transported to America because there are some rich and powerful who are demanding these drugs and distributing them in the country, making thousands addicts and victimizing many other innocents. Many times the innocent are caught in possession of the drugs which they are completely unaware of and end up spending years in prison while the culprit remains free. Inspite of all the controls, the drug industry is still growing, proliferating. Can the future hold any hope of defeating this powerful industry? Only time will tell.

Griffin Law Firm is the one stop solution for criminal law services. Attorney Christopher Griffin and his firm has successfully offered valuable legal counsel to his clients in every legal aspects to obtain the best possible outcome. The team is expert in reprensenting DUIs, Domestic Violence and drug possession and distribution cases.