Drug trade boys: study looks at role of guns and girls

In times of economic crisis, the drug trade no longer affords the kind of financial returns it once did. Why then, do children and youths continue to join a life of crime?

They are looking for sex and for power, according to the study “Meninos do Rio: jovens, violência armada e polícia nas favelas cariocas” (Boys from Rio: youths, armed violence and the police in Rio de Janeiro shantytowns). The study was backed by UNICEF and coordinated by Social Scientist Silvia Ramos from the Center for Security and Citizenship, Cesec, at Rio de Janeiro’s Universidade Cândido Mendes. The goal of the study was to gather more and newer data on the factors that lead to the involvement of youths in armed violence, as well as to make recommendations to the Unicef Rio office on actions to combat violence.

Launched the 21st of December, 09, the survey found that girls who fall for boys with guns “marias fuzil” as they are nicknamed, are a strong factor contributing to the fascinations that youths, teenagers and children have for illegal groups and guns. Asked why they joined the drug trade, the youths alleged it was because it made them feel “powerful” and brought them “women”.

“A boy said that a gun calls attention and that the girls like it. Another said it was because of the kind of power a gun stands for,” said Ramos in her study. The girls, on their part, also said they chose drug traffickers because it gives them a “feeling of power”.

The study was carried out between May and November 2008, with youths who live in shantytowns in Rio de Janeiro – they are undergraduate students, they are former traffickers, current traffickers, and militia members-  the study also heard women whose children are involved with crime, community leaders, cultural leaders and social workers from NGOs.

All told, 104 people participated formally in the qualitative research, that resulted in approximately 400 pages of transcriptions and field diaries. Seven focal groups brought together 87 youths, technicians and mothers. 16 community leaders and respondents were interviewed and consulted. Additionally, one quantitative study was carried out with the participation of 14 youths who interviewed 241 young men and women age 14 to 29 in the city´s West zone.

Crisis in the drug market

The study identified that, among the main changes to take place in the drug trade over the past few years, there was a drop in earnings from drug sales. A former trafficker, currently in a wheel chair, put it simply: “I am sure that I earn more money working (begging) at a traffic-light than people do trafficking drugs. And I am not talking about the small fish, I mean the bosses.”
The crisis in the illegal drug market has to do, in part, with the fact that middle class consumers stopped going to stantytowns for fear of violence, whether it is violence associated to the traffickers themselves or the police. The new synthetic drugs flooding the market was cited as another contributing factor, especially ecstasy, that alledgedly bypasses shantytowns going directly from importers to consumers.

Cocaine however, is still a highly profitable drug in the illegal market and it is used by the middle class. There are signs however, that it’s heyday is over, due to interference of the police that makes itself felt through suppression or extortion. Another aspect to note is the arrival of crack in the carioca shantytowns, crack is alledgedly more affordable for local residents, on the other hand much less profitable for drug sellers.

With the drop in cash flow, according to the study, drug selling points have become important also for other gun-related activities such as armed robberies carried out in middle class areas. “When the drug trade is no longer a source of money, it is hard to believe that the expectation of financial gain is still the best explanation for its strong pull over some people,” said Silvia Ramos.
Marias fuzil, or girls who love guys with guns

And where does sex come into the story? According to the researcher, the topic of sexuality was one that “forced itself” into the study, although it had not part of the study's original plan. “The information came up repeatedly in the study -it was confirmed, explained and reaffirmed – and even so, it is surprising, and it is obscure – I am talking about the the predominant role guns have of attracting women, pretty girls, from shantytowns, from outside shantytowns and even from other social classes. The so called “gun girls” are alledgedly always present in the illegal drugs outlets, especially during the dance parties called “baile funk”, and they were often defined as the greatest reason to explain the attraction that the illegal groups and guns have for children adolescents and youths,” said Ramos.

The report explains that the baile-funk parties are events in which youths who live in shantytowns and have no involvement with drug traffickers can spend some time together with those who are involved with trafficking, sharing a bit of the culture of the drug traffickers, singing the same songs, in dance parties known as “proibidões” (or outlaw parties) to the sound of Brazilian funk, and watching the display of guns.

A woman whose teenage son is currently in jail adds: “The boy has practically nothing, he is practically destitute, but do you know how many girls he has? As many as he wants. Depending on the type of gun he has, the more women he will have.”

A favela project worker agrees: “it (the drug trade) does not make much cash anymore, they can buy themselves a pair of sneakers, but not much more than that. What they can get these days is to attract the girls. They are crazy about a guy with a gun and a gold necklace.”
Interpersonal disputes

In the study Silvia notes that no study to date has shown precisely what are the dynamics to generate lethal violence among young poor and black residents in shantytowns and poor neighborhood in the metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro. But the frequent use of firearms is a great indication that the deaths are associated whether directly or indirectly, to the illegal armed groups that control areas of the city and that oppose themselves to other such groups or the police.

Nor are there precise numbers on the various types of victims of gun violence, Ramos points out that these range from those who participate directly in contending groups (traffickers, militia men, police officers), indirectly (family members, drug users, friends) or other (neighbors, residents of area neighborhoods, bystanders present in bus robberies, caught in the crossfire, when a fight breaks out in a party, etc). According to Silvia, little is known even in discrete categories such as those that come under “deaths associated to the drug trafficking”.

The researcher stresses that the classical split between interpersonal violence on the one hand, (between people who know each other, with no financial gain involved) and collective violence (such as those associated to organized crime) is not supported by the facts. “In practice, what we see is that an important part of the lethal violence takes place in a setting of so called drug trade and results from an interpersonal conflicts and disputes. The borders between the criminal nature and a setting of high lethality among shantytown youths, are indefined.”  said Ramos.

Some leave, while others...

Researchers asked in all the focal groups and interviews why some youths enter the illegally armed groups and others dont. After generic statements on what would lead teens to crime, respondents would inevitably offer stories that contradicted their previous statements.
“It is clar that in many cases adolescents join the drug trade or militias in search of money, work, and to flee from violent families, to escape fathers or mothers who are alcoholic or degraded, or for classic socio-economic reasons. But it is important that we pay attention to the fact that so many of these life stories do not fit in clearly with these most obvious or more frequent motives,” said Silvia Ramos.

According to Silvia, it is important to have in mind that the financial appeal is not necessarily the decisive factor or at least it is no longer the most decisive factor since the hey-day of illegal drug earnings. This also means that social projects based on offering financial aid may have to be rethought.

A number of researchers mentioned that it is necessary to negociate daily for youths to stay in social projects that offer some money, but that do not offer other attractions that are present in the drug trade. Trying to come up with a list of situations and conditions that lead youths into a life of crime, apart from financial need and the desire to come out of invisibility, the reasons offered most frequently in the focal groups and interviews were: having lived a situation of injustice (on the part of the police, school, friends or other youths), having a member of the family involved in the drug trade, families that are unstructured or neglect them, and not having a future to strive for.

The researcher cautions however that any of these alledged motivations must be considered carefully. The family seems to really play a key role in whether youths enter illegally armed groups. The family connection works both ways. “We heard many reports that precisely because one member of the family, (a father or a brother) had joined the drug trade, everything was done to stop another youth from following the other's footsteps. In other words, it is as if the poison had turned out to be the antidote,” said Silvia.

Militias also attract

The study also found that militia groups attract youths as a source of money and jobs. This comes to refute the current notion that militias are mostly made up of older men and people who are already professionaly employed as police officers. According to the study, the financial crisis the drug trade is going through has led some police officers to participate directly in controling certain areas or territories, and no longer indirectly through the extortion of drug traffickers.
Statements given in the study show that, even after the Parliamentary Hearing Commission on Militias identified the militia bosses and mode of operation, they not only continue to be strong, but also seem to be more structured than before.

“The militias today have enough structure and autonomy to survive and prosper even with important members of their leadership behind bars. Every policy that targets the reduction of lethal violence and those that address youths in shantytowns and lower income neighborhoods will have to take into account the fact that militia groups are not only present and real, but that they generate lethality to a degree that it has not been possible to gauge yet, and that they will probably continue to do so for the years to come”, said the study.

police brutality and anger

As to the stories of injustices that were reported to lead youths to decide to join local illegal armed groups, many of them report police actions that are arbitrary and humiliating. In the seven months the study was carried out, the researchers heard a number of cases in which the police acted despicably.

“We are not merely noting the over one thousand deaths perpetrated by police forces every year. We are talking about evidence of widespread corruption and the proliferation of the militias under the complacent gaze of police commanders and chiefs. We are talking about a deep set police culture that thinks it is only natural to disrespect residents in poor areas of the city, that makes brutality banal, and that in a certain sense provides them with a daily justification for its own failures, it is how the rationalle of the war against crime works,” said Silvia.

In Ramos' view the police is at least partially responsible for this tragedy, but must also be understood that the police must also be a key part of the solution, once the police has also become necessary to end the domination of traffickers and militias, and to reduce the number of guns and ammunition at these locations. To free such areas successfully can only be possible if it is done by honest police officers who treat local residents respectfully. Ramos also stresses the need to carry on with the gun control policies.  

The researcher also recomends other actions to lower the lethality that comes from the involvment of young people in illegal armed groups. These include: improving schools, creating jobs, greater variety in job opportunities, scholarships, and cultural initiatives to strengthen the image that youths have in the shantytowns. Ramos also stresses the role of the police:

“Social, cultural actions and the political pressure exerted on the authorities, in themselves, will not be able to eliminate guns and reduce lethal violence. This is true anywhere, and especially for Rio de Janeiro. It is in the police, therefore, that where part of our energies must be concentrated over the next few years.”

The study is dedicated in memoriam to researcher Ana Carolina Rodrigues da Silva Dreyfus, who belonged to Viva Rio, contributed to the study, and lost her life at the age of 28 in the Air France 447 flight that went missing on the 31st of May, 2009.

Translated by Lis Horta Moriconi

Cover photo: Nando Dias for Viva Favela