‘As time moved on I’d kept my eye on the sophistication of organised crime and drug distribution. It was only a matter of time before I moved back into investigating that world. I knew who the main players were and it was inevitable that I would be involved in investigating their criminality. What I didn’t know was under what circumstances, how and when. When it did happen it wasn’t what I had expected!’
Between 2003 and 2012, the Cartel suffered several major setbacks, including the murder of a number of key bosses and, thanks to the success of the Analyst and his colleagues, the capture and incarceration of many of its members. Of those who survived, many of the founding members, who were reaching pensionable age, retired to their estates in Spain, the US, South Africa and elsewhere. A couple of the middle-aged powerhouses, who had accumulated hundreds of million in assets and complex international businesses, spent a lot of time and effort legitimising their holdings and distancing themselves from day-to-day criminal activity. In short, the Cartel was rapidly losing its management. But despite these problems, the Cartel defied convention and continued to grow. In fact, the last decade arguably became its most successful one.
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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Copyright © Graham Johnson, 2012
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First published in Great Britain in 2012 by
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