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Characteristics
Within these upper two levels, it is not uncommon for the identities and roles of the membership to be well-known. Specifics regarding sales, pur- chases, associations, contacts and sometimes financial arrangements often become common knowledge within the trade. In short, there are few secrets within the Chinese trafficking business community. The members of the community do, in fact, consider themselves as businessmen whose duty it is to turn a profit. They do not suffer from guilt feelings, as they have no sense that their activities are stigmatized by immorality. While they know that their activities are illegal, Chinese traffickers are seldom part of an organized or identifiable "underworld, nor do they generally consort with criminals. Often they own legitimate business concerns--gold shops or other small commercial firms seems to be favored--and are active in Chinese association activities. Among the Chinese so engaged, then, narcotics trafficking is a way of life and of earning a good living.
Shifting alliances and relationships within the trafficking fraternity are common and, by and large, amicable in nature. Desire for profit and similarity in background are their shared characteristics. Traffickers in the tri-border area are, almost without exception, Chinese, many from or with antecedents in China's Yunnan Province, and a number are of the Muslin faith. Family relationships are also an important consideration, witness the Hu brothers in Vientiane and the Ma clan in Northern Thailand.
Lower Level
At the lower end of the scale are the lesser lights of the narcotics trafficking business--the couriers, receivers, contact men, local whole- salers and pushers. They receive less pay, take greater risks, and suffer the highest arrest rate. Many of them are usually not part of a trafficking network, and are unaware of their
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