Street Gangs, Outlaw Bikers, the Mafia and the Mexican Cartels: Dynamics of Transnational Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking in Canada

Date
2015-09-28
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Abstract
Over the last few years, Mexican organizations active in the cocaine trade have chosen to stop working through Canadian middlemen and have instead established a direct presence in Canada. What factors have facilitated this decision? How is it likely to affect the dynamics of the transnational drug trade in Canada? It appears that the decision to stop working through middlemen can be traced back to a relative contemporary weakness of Canadian organized crime groups that traditionally handled the Canadian distribution. Further, a convenient network opportunity for direct expansion into Canada has presented itself to the cartels in the form of recently immigrated Mexican-Canadian Mennonites, some of whom have long acted as Mexican cartel-agents. Despite the fearsome reputation of Mexican cartels, there has been no noticeable increase in drug-related violence in Canada, and it is highly unlikely that they will bring Mexico-style violence to Canada with them in the near-term.
Description
Keywords
History--Modern, Military Studies, Criminology and Penology
Citation
Gaudig-Rueger, S. (2015). Street Gangs, Outlaw Bikers, the Mafia and the Mexican Cartels: Dynamics of Transnational Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking in Canada (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/27892