One reason is that the Cartel seemed to change shape quickly to adapt to new threats and new markets. The natural shedding of the higher echelons made the Cartel flatter and less hierarchical. Power passed downwards onto the street. And instead of dissipating, the new underclass embraced it and made it their own, concentrating the power and using it to get rich and grow. As Dylan Porter said, ‘We all thought it would die off. We thought that once we went to jail or got older or just got off cos we couldn’t handle it that it’d all calm down.
‘Of course, we knew that drugs would never go away completely. People like taking drugs – and anyway, what would the police and the judges and the solicitors do if tomorrow people like I used to be stopped dealing drugs? The jails would be empty. The whole justice system would come to a halt.
‘It’s not only criminals who benefit from organised crime. Let’s face, it the so-called War on Drugs has been good for a lot of people over the years. A lot of bad things have been done in its name; a lot of lies have been told.
‘But, putting that aside, today the drugs thing is worse than ever. Twelve- and thirteen-year-olds have got more power than the people who are supposed to be at the top, and they are more dangerous than we were.
‘I just can’t understand how that’s happened.’
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The Cartel: The Inside Story of Britain's Biggest Drugs Gang Page 31
