Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic

by Sam Quinones

The delivery drivers did tours of six months and then left. If they were arrested they were deported, not prosecuted, because they never carried large amounts of dope. The cases were always light. Baldessare first figured they were small-timers. Later he realized that, quite to the contrary, they had learned how drug investigations worked: prosecutors prized cases with large quantities of drugs. Crack and methamphetamine were the priorities then, each measured in kilos. As camouflage, these Mexican heroin guys used just-in-time supplying, like any global corporation, to ensure they had only tiny quantities in their cars or apartments. This, too, was sophistication Baldessare didn’t see in the heroin underworld.