DPRC 2002 Grant Hill Science and Drug Policy Speaker Series
POWDER BROKERS: THE ART OF SURVIVAL IN COLOMBIAN COCAINE TRAFFICKING ORGANIZATIONS
Rick Fuentes, Captain and Chief of the Intelligence Bureau,
New Jersey State Police
December 2, noon, RAND
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Colombian cocaine distribution cells operate at the uppermost levels of the cocaine trade in the United States, steering the flow of hundreds of thousands of kilos of cocaine through the major urban drug markets. Dr. Fuentes examined organizational structure, worker recruitment practices, customer relations, kilo price setting influences, the utility of violence and adaptation to drug enforcement through a case study of the Helmer Herrera cocaine trafficking organization. While a seated member of the Cali cocaine cartel in Colombia, Helmer Herrera was responsible for the importation and wholesale distribution of at least sixty percent of all cocaine reaching New York City over a six year period 1985-1991.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Fuentes received his doctorate in 1998 from CUNY in Criminal Justice and wrote his dissertation on the above topic in cooperation with the DEA. He has been in the New Jersey State Police for 24 years. Over the last 16 years, he spent five years on the FBI Terrorist Task Force in Newark, eight years investigating Colombian and Cuban cocaine trafficking and transportation groups, and three years as a lieutenant in charge of statewide intelligence and enforcement operations against criminal street gangs.
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