Industrial Geography of Cocaine

Latin American cocaine trafficking organizations comprise an indigenous, globally competitive, multinational industry. Their business operations are deeply ingrained within the economic and political systems of countries throughout the region. While criminal enterprises operate in a more complex and uncertain setting than licit firms, their competitive success is determined in fundamentally similar ways. Models developed by geographers to explain the spatial behavior of licit multinational firms are profitably applied here to the operations of drug trafficking operations. <p>1. Through the Lens of Economic Geography: Cocaine in Space and Place 2. Globalization and Competitive Advantage in the International Drug Trade 3. Drug Trafficking Organizations: Strategy and Organization 4. Production Chain of Cocaine HCl 5. Case Study: Columbia 6. Case Study: Bolivia 7. International Trans-shipment of Cocaine 8. Case Study: Mexico 9. Marketing Cocaine in the U.S. 10. Policy Implications 11. Conclusions: Through a Glass, Darkly. References</p>