PRISON SERVICE

learn about their experiences from their own perspective.Ecuador is situated geographically between Colombia andPeru where most of the world’s cocaine is grown. 22Although very little cocaine is grown or processed inEcuador, it is an important point of export to the rest ofthe globe. 23 This is reflected in the prison population: inthe women’s prison 70 per cent of inmates are convicteddrug offenders; in the men’s prison the figure is 28 percent. 24 Inmates convicted of drug trafficking came from allover South and Latin America (but especially Colombia),North America, Europe, West Africa, the Middle East,West and Eastern Europe, Russia, China and South EastAsia. I interviewed over 30 traffickers, of which 23 hadworked as a mule at least once (9 men and 14 women).Not much research has beendone on drug mules: they are ahidden population and mostmules will not get caught. Almostall research on drug mules hasbeen done in prison and thisproject is no different. It is difficultto say how representative theserespondents are, nonethelessresearch of this type is importantas it ‘does show what can anddoes exist’. 25 Finally, note thatmules’ ages and nationalitiescannot be included as it wouldidentify them.Motivations for working as a drugs’ muleMules were motivated by a broad range ofcircumstances, pressures and desires. The remainder ofthe paper examines these in detail. This research finds thatrespondents were motivated by a wide variety ofcircumstances and desires along a continuum fromcoercion to free choice.Threat and coercion from traffickersPrevious research has found that some mules arerecruited through violent threat. 26 Two respondents hadbeen recruited through threat by people that they knewnonetheless threat was not a common experience of themules I interviewed. Marina was threatened by her expartnerand father of her daughter. He kidnapped herdaughter and gave her an ultimatum:He came to my house and told me you willtravel for me to Ecuador and you bring me thatMules weremotivated by abroad range ofcircumstances,pressures anddesires.shit [cocaine] so that you will get your daughterback. If [you do] not, you will never see heralive… I can expect anything from him: whenhe is saying he wanted to kill her, I will believe it.For real. (Marina, European, employed).Marina contacted the social services, however sinceher ex-partner was a legal guardian they could offer littleassistance. She had experienced violence from himpreviously and saw no choice but to do what he asked.Similarly, Howard was threatened by the brother ofan old colleague. Howard worked in the music businessin the 1970’s and 80’s and toured with Latin bands inColombia and had encountered people on theperipheries of the drugs trade.Twenty years later, Howard wasworking in Ecuador. He wasapproached with an offer ofmule-work. He was asked severaltimes; each time he refused thewage increased. After Howardrefused to traffic drugs severaltimes, his contact made an excuseto come to Ecuador whereHoward was visiting. Once hiscontact arrived, he told Howardthe ‘material’ was on its way. Theyfought. Shortly after, Howard’swife received threatening phonecalls. When the drugs arrived with packaged in asuitcase, his contact had a 9mm pistol tucked into thewaistband of his trousers. Although Howard’s contactmade no explicit verbal threat, the presence of a pistoland threats to his wife, backed up with Howard’sfirsthand knowledge of the drugs industry made thethreat plausible:[My wife and I] weighed up the idea of going tothe police but to me, the immediate image I gotwas of cocaine cowboys. And gunfire and… [inthe 70’s and 80’s] we would have to perform atthe cartel headquarters and I would see all theTommy guns and machine guns and AK-47sand everybody armed to the teeth. So… thatwas my mindset. That’s who I think they are.(Howard, North American, self employed).Coercion and debtAlthough Howard and Marina’s cases are clearexamples of direct interpersonal threat, coercion through22. UNODC (2008). World Drug Report. Vienna, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.23. Rivera, V., Fredy (2005). Ecuador: Untangling the drug war. Drugs and democracy in Latin America: the impact of U.S. policy. C.Youngers and E. Rosin. Boulder, Colo. ; London, L. Rienner: xi, 414 p.24. Nuñez, J. and C. Gallardo (2006). Una lectura cuantativa del sistema de cárceles en Ecuador [A quantative reading of the prison systemin Ecuador]. Quito, Programa de estudios de la cuidad, FLACSO.25. Denton, B. (2001). Dealing: Women in the Drug Economy. Sydney, Australia, University of New South Wales Press. P. 18.26. Sudbury (2005).Issue 192 Prison Service Journal5