British South Asian Communities and Drug Supply Networks in the UK

This paper explores the spread of drug use within British South Asian communities, focusing on the role of family, friendship and ethnicity connections for members of drug dealing network. The paper draws on qualitative research conducted in England and Wales, but also in Pakistan. Interviews were conducted with 123 individuals, including: British South Asian drug offenders in custody for drug supply related offences; drug dealers and users outside prison, unknown to official agencies; ‘key individuals’ with working knowledge of drug use/distribution amongst British South Asian communities; law enforcers based in Britain; law enforcers based in Pakistan; treatment staff based in Britain; treatment staff based in Pakistan. We draw on these interview data to present a descriptive typology of the criminal organizations involved in drug dealing and trafficking. This typology includes family and mono-ethnic networks, which are more likely to import directly from producing countries, but are unable to distribute to wider markets than their own local outlets, and issue-specific and value-adding networks, which have the capacity to find a diverse range of partners and access a variety of markets, and which are likely to use all available importing modalities.

This paper is based on research funded by the Home Office. After its publication, I was invited to deliver a paper at the National University of Singapore in a symposium on Asian organised crime. A different, enlarged version of this article has been accepted for publication by the Asian Journal of Criminology.