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Quote 235 of 521

Distribution within the rich importing countries is often dominated by
immigrant groups. A police officer in Bern, in Switzerland, counts
them off on his fingers: cocaine comes into the country mainly from
Spain, but the trade is run by African asylum-seekers and by Turks.
Heroin comes from Turkey and the Balkans, and the business is mainly
in the hands of Albanians, Serbs and Macedonians, he says. Few of
these folk appear in the streets: the final deal is often done by
Swiss junkies. There are similar stories everywhere: in Denmark, it is
Gambians, in Australia, Vietnamese. 

This foreign control is no accident. Immigrant groups may have strong
links with producing countries; they speak languages the police rarely
understand; they have close ties of loyalty to each other. All these
things give them a competitive advantage over locals. In addition,
they have less to lose because they find it harder than locals to get
decent legitimate jobs.

"Big Business", <cite>The Economist</cite>,
		   2001-07-26 
		   http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=708500

Tags: asylumseekers closeties immigrantgroups albanians serbs balkans junkies competitiveadvantage heroin policeofficer cocaine locals bern loyalty vietnamese fingers turks denmark spain languages