The Seduction of a Drug Mule: Drug Trafficking Among Female Offenders

• Published date: 01 January 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00220426221145020
• Author: Melvina T. Sumter,Frank Wood,Ingrid Whitaker
• Date: 01 January 2024
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Journal of Drug Issues

2024, Vol. 54(1) 3–21

© The Author(s) 2022

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/00220426221145020

journals.sagepub.com/home/jod

The Seduction of a Drug Mule:

Drug Traff‌icking Among

Female Offenders

Melvina T. Sumter

1

, Frank Wood

2

, and Ingrid Whitaker

1

Abstract

This research examined how women are recruited into drug traff‌icking. Previous f‌indings indicate

that women are recruited into drug traff‌icking due to economic hardship. Data for this research

study is taken from in-depth interviews with 13 female offenders incarcerated at the Trinidad and

Tobago Prison Service. The f‌indings in this study suggest women become involved in drug

smuggling for reasons that are far more complex than simple f‌inancial need. Specif‌ically, the

majority of women fell prey, under the guise of friendship, to an unscrupulous individual, in-

terested in furthering his or her cause. Under systems of patriarchy and capitalism, the f‌indings

from this study suggests that women became involved in drug traff‌icking because of how the y are

socialized.

Keywords

drug traff‌icking, economic marginality, female inmates, socialization, victimization

Ayoung woman gets off the plane at an international airport on a beautiful and peaceful Caribbean

Island; but the thought of a wonderful vacation is soon disturbed when the customs agent says,

‘You are under arrest for traff‌icking in drugs.’She may have lost everything, her freedom, her

children, her family; her parents will be disappointed, her business may fold, her children might be

brought up by someone else, and that money she was promised is nowhere in sight. Now she is

paying the price. Why did she do it? It is not certain, given that scant scholarly inquiry has been

made into why women become involved in the traff‌icking of drugs from one country to another.

Drug traff‌icking has been identif‌ied by the United Nations Off‌ice on Drugs and Crime

(UNODC) as a global issue. For instance, in 2016, the UNODC (2018) reported an estimated 2.5

million drug seizure cases in 69 countries around the world. Even more, the UNODC (2018)

reported that, between 2012 and 2016, approximately 151 countries reported drug seizures for

marijuana, with approximately 146 countries reporting drug seizures for cocaine, approximately

1

Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA

2

Department of Criminal Justice, Bethune-Cookman University, Daytona Beach, FL, USA

Corresponding Author:

Melvina T. Sumter, Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, Old Dominion University, 5410 S. Williamson Blvd, Apt

3112, Port Orange, FL 32128, USA.

Email: msumter@odu.edu

139 countries reporting drug seizures for opioids, and approximately 136 countries reporting drug

seizures for opiates (UNODC, 2018). While the UNODC (2018, p. 27) estimated that, between

2012 and 2016, approximately “90% of people brought into contact with the criminal justice for

drug-related offenses were men,”the remaining 10% were comprised of females. While the largest

number of women arrested for drug traff‌icking were reported in south-eastern and eastern Asian

countries as well as western, eastern, and central European countries, the UNODC (2018) reported

the highest proportion of females arrested for drug traff‌icking in Central America and Oceania,

which consist of Australia and New Zealand (22% and 20% respectively). In India, Delhi criminal

justice agencies reported a rise of approximately 15% from 2005 to 2006 in female offenders

arrested for drug traff‌icking, as well as the Punjab police in Malawi who reported a 12% increase

in arrests of women during the f‌irst 5 months of 2012 (Tandon, 2012). Correspondingly, in

Zambia, a Zambian off‌icial, the Public Relations Off‌icer for the Drug Enforcement Commission in

Lusaka, stated that four women had been arrested within 7 days at their international airport and he

was “saddened with the emerging trend of drug traff‌icking as it is degrading to the dignity of

women in our society”(“Three Women Arrested,”2010).

Previous research reveals that drug traff‌icking is conducted by people on the fringes of society,

those of low socioeconomic status, those desiring to uplift their personal identity within

mainstream society because of past victimization or childhood abuses, and by those who are

criminally inclined or have anti-social behaviors. However, the recruitment strategies and

techniques used by leaders of drug empires to enlist female drug traff‌ickers, an area understudied,

is a key focus of this study. In focusing on the drug traff‌icking experiences among females

transiting through one of the Caribbean nations, this study aims to f‌ill a void in the literature by

addressing the question, how are females recruited into drug traff‌icking? Specif‌ically, this research

study collected qualitative data from 13 female offenders incarcerated at the Trinidad and Tobago

Prison Service (TTPS) on their recruitment into drug smuggling.

Survey of Drug Smuggling Literature

Using a university library database and keywords such as “female drug smuggling,”“recruit-

ment,”and “involvement,”the authors identif‌ied available research on female drug smuggling.

Once these studies were identif‌ied, the authors only focused on those studies detailing the re-

cruitment strategies and techniques used to enlist females into drug traff‌icking. The reference lists

of these studies were also used to secure additional research on this topic. In reviewing available

research, the authors collected information about the purpose, methodology, and f‌indings of each

research study. Once this information was collected, the authors used thematic coding to cate-

gorize studies that were similar in their f‌indings on the recruitment of females into drug traff‌icking

and develop the themes outlined below.

In doing so, a survey of the literature revealed several themes associated with female drug

smuggling. These include recruitment strategies and techniques used by leaders of drug empires to

enlist drug traff‌ickers, to include, friendship ties and intergenerational family ties, the impov-

erished economic status of women, and history of oppression women experience.

Friendship, Familial, and Intergenerational Ties

According to f‌indings from Adler (1993) and Adler and Adler (1983), in a study of drug traff‌ickers

in the border region of southwestern California, approximately half of recruited drug traff‌ickers

are socialites who have no prior history of drug traff‌icking. Likewise, f‌indings from Decker and

Chapman (2008, p. 98) suggest that “friendship provided a large number of contacts for new

sources of labour”for the organizational kingpins looking for drug traff‌icking recruits. As well,

4Journal of Drug Issues 54(1)