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book: Drug War Zone
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Drug War Zone

Frontline Dispatches from the Streets of El Paso and Juárez
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2009

About this book

Winner, Southwest Book Award, Border Regional Library Association, 2011

Thousands of people die in drug-related violence every year in Mexico. Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, adjacent to El Paso, Texas, has become the most violent city in the Mexican drug war. Much of the cocaine, marijuana, and methamphetamine consumed in the United States is imported across the Mexican border, making El Paso/Juárez one of the major drug-trafficking venues in the world.

In this anthropological study of drug trafficking and anti-drug law enforcement efforts on the U.S.-Mexico border, Howard Campbell uses an ethnographic perspective to chronicle the recent Mexican drug war, focusing especially on people and events in the El Paso/Juárez area. It is the first social science study of the violent drug war that is tearing Mexico apart.

Based on deep access to the drug-smuggling world, this study presents the drug war through the eyes and lives of direct participants. Half of the book consists of oral histories from drug traffickers, and the other half from law enforcement officials. There is much journalistic coverage of the drug war, but very seldom are the lived experiences of traffickers and "narcs" presented in such vivid detail. In addition to providing an up-close, personal view of the drug-trafficking world, Campbell explains and analyzes the functioning of drug cartels, the corruption that facilitates drug trafficking, the strategies of smugglers and anti-narcotics officials, and the perilous culture of drug trafficking that Campbell refers to as the "Drug War Zone."

Author / Editor information

HOWARD CAMPBELL is Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Texas at El Paso. He is the co-editor of the University of Texas Press Inter-America Series.

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    Frontmatter

    i
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    Contents

    v
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    Introduction

    1
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  • PART I. Smuggling in the Drug War Zone
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    Introduction: Drug Trafficking—Studies and Sources Relevant to the Mexican-American Drug War Zone

    37
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    La Nacha: The Heroin Queen of Juárez

    40
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    The Roots of Contraband Smuggling in El Paso

    53
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    Female Drug Lord

    60
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    Community-Based Drug Use, Smuggling, and Dealing in the 1970s and 1980s

    76
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    Selling Drugs in Downtown Juárez: Juan and Jorge

    97
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    A Young Smuggler and His Family

    106
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    Blaxicans: The Life of a Chicano Smuggler and Musician on the Borderline of African American and Mexican American Culture

    113
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    Drug Addiction and Drug Trafficking in the Life of an Anarchist

    131
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    Drug Smuggling through Tunnels: The Tale of a Scuba-Diving Instructor

    158
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    Witness to a Juárez Drug Killing

    166
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  • PART II. Law Enforcement in the Drug War Zone
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    Introduction: Ethnographic Dimensions of Law Enforcement in the Drug War Zone

    173
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    Undercover Agent on the Border: Cultural Disguises

    179
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    The Death of Francisco

    193
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    A Juárez Policeman Fighting Drug Traffickers

    200
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    Journalism and Drug Trafficking: Covering the Narco Beat on the Border

    215
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    Patrolling the Drug War Zone: A Border Patrol Agent in the War on Drugs

    227
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    Intelligence and the Drug War: Commander of an Antidrug Task Force on the Border

    239
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    Excerpt from Weed: Adventures of a Dope Smuggler, by Jerry Kamstra

    257
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    Agent against Prohibition

    259
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    Epilogue and Conclusion

    265
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    Notes

    275
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    References

    287
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    Index

    297
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
October 25, 2021
eBook ISBN:
9780292799097
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
View content
https://doi.org/10.7560/721265
eBook ISBN: 9780292799097
Audience(s) for this book
For a non-specialist adult audience
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