First OAS study on human drug couriers, based on more than 400 interviews. For nearly nine in ten interviewees, it was their first trip carrying drugs. In Spanish prisons, the share of people recruited through coercion reaches 31.3 percent; in Peruvian prisons, it is 8 percent.
The first OAS research dedicated to understanding recruitment patterns and the vulnerabilities of people used as human drug couriers interviewed people imprisoned in five prisons in Peru and Spain for transporting drugs by air. One in five had been recruited through threats, coercion, or deception. In prisons in the destination country, Spain, the share reaches 31.3 percent; in those of the country of origin, Peru, it is 8 percent.
The study draws on 386 valid cases out of more than 400 interviews. It is exploratory and relies on a convenience sample: it describes the people who responded, not everyone imprisoned for this offense.
The study, "Drug Couriers: The Weakest Link in Drug Trafficking by Air," was produced by the Executive Secretariat of the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (ES/CICAD) of the OAS, together with Comillas Pontifical University.
The report points out that some of these cases could amount to forced criminality or even human trafficking for the purpose of criminal exploitation.
"For the most part, we found people with no criminal record, recruited by someone they trusted at a moment of need. Drawing a legal distinction between those who transport and those who organize is not going soft on drug trafficking: it is directing the criminal justice response at those who actually profit from the crime," said Antonio Lomba, project director.
Who They Are
The profile that emerges from the study is far from the stereotype of the professional criminal. For 87.5 percent, it was their first time in prison, and for 85.9 percent, the first time they had carried drugs. Friends recruited 61.2 percent; acquaintances, 8.8 percent; a partner, 7.5 percent; and a relative, 6.8 percent. In other words, more than eight in ten were drawn in through a prior bond of trust. Some 77 percent were parents, with an average of 2.8 dependents, and the average age in the sample was 38.
This is not a story of extreme exclusion, but of incomes that fall short. Some 69.7 percent had completed secondary school or more, 20.8 percent had attended university, and 97.4 percent lived in urban areas. Two in three had some income when they were recruited, but not enough: the payment promised for a single trip was equivalent to several months' or even years' worth of income. Women reported payments close to half of what men received for the same activity, smaller advances, and sentences one year shorter.
Some 41 percent were unaware of the risks of the trip on which they were arrested. Among those who knew something, seven in ten thought only of the possibility of going to prison: just 3.3 percent identified any risk to their health or life, even though 14.5 percent were carrying the drugs inside their bodies.
The study also documented histories of violence and psychological distress. Some 52.5 percent described anxiety or loss of emotional control in the previous six months, although only 12.7 percent had a formal diagnosis, and 50.8 percent of respondents (197 responses) believed their mental health influenced their decision to accept the trip. In addition, 69 of the people interviewed reported having previously suffered sexual assault, with a higher incidence among women, and 76.4 percent of those who had been assaulted received no psychological support.
Of those who responded, 44.8 percent said their offense was linked to a criminal network, and one in four did not know whether it was. After the arrest, however, the network disappears: the criminal organization paid legal expenses in only 2.2 percent of cases. In the rest, the costs fell on families (41.8 percent) or on the individuals themselves (29.1 percent).
Concrete Policy Measures Emerging From the Study
The report proposes a set of concrete measures for member states. On criminal law: recognize coercion through differentiated regimes and specific mitigating circumstances; distinguish people used as couriers from those who hold positions of power within the criminal structure; and expand alternatives to incarceration for first offenses or demonstrated vulnerability.
On protection: establish protocols for victims of criminal exploitation that are distinct from those applied to people who take part voluntarily, and incorporate screening for mental health and experiences of violence among people detained for this offense.
At the border: unify police protocols at airports and train officers in human rights, deepening their understanding of the root causes of the offense.
And after release from prison: post-release employment programs. Around 78.1 percent of those interviewed said that work is the first thing they will need when they regain their freedom.
About the Study
The research is part of the project "Human Drug Couriers: Strengthening Institutional Capacities," funded by the Government of Canada through its Anti-Crime Capacity Building Program, in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The fieldwork was made possible by the support of the Directorate General for International Relations and Foreign Affairs of the Secretariat of State for Security and the General Secretariat of Penitentiary Institutions, both of Spain's Ministry of the Interior, andof Peru's National Penitentiary Institute (INPE), National Commission for Development and Life without Drugs (DEVIDA), Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, and Public Prosecutor's Office.
SE/CICAD is part of the OAS Secretariat for Multidimensional Security.
