I find it funny that illegal drugs can be a 12-figure business globally and yet people seem to think it's just street level gang bangers doing this. Now who would have a vested interest in people thinking that? :)

I'm sure there are organizations that would easily make it to the Fortune 100 if they could be listed as such. They're also smart enough to let disposable thugs break the street level laws. Real drug kingpins never physically handle product.

> I'm sure there are organizations that would easily make it to the Fortune 100 if they could be listed as such.

Case in point, a report from a couple of years ago claimed that the Calabria-based 'Ndrangheta had a turnover of 53 billion euros, approximately 3.5% if Italy's GDP. This is one of the articles discussing it: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/26/ndrangheta-maf...

The biggest drug dealers are in banking, shipping and in governmental office. So they are breaking treaties instead of municipal criminal statutes.

If you're smart enough, you get someone else to break the laws with the highest chance of arrest.

And if you are even smarter, you convince everybody that what you are doing is not a crime, but rather something like "natural order of the world".

The Wire is a perfect (if fictional) illustration of this fact.

Probably rather what is called "street smart"?

I'm actually currently reading a good book on that topic, "Narconomics: How to run a drug cartel"[1]. One chapter is about "the people problems of a cartel", because they have huge HR issues. The problem is that you can't officially hire good people, like regular business can do. So they have to refrain to personal connections. Training is another problem. The main training facility are prisons.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Tom-Wainwright-Narconomics-Cartel-Har...

No, I mean traditionally smart. As in honor students, engineers and writers, etc.

I mean, who here doesn't know at least one intelligent person, who because of issues with upbringing, socioeconomic status, mental health, etc earns considerably less than their peers of similar ability (because they couldnt go to or dropped out of college, because they didn't have the network to get a job after, etc)?

My experience is that it's often those people who make the transition from street and neighborhood level dealing to managing portions of the supply chain, because their cousin's uncle's friend said they knew a way to make a lot more than their dealing small-scale to pay bills or whatever dead-end job they're at. Then once you're in the network, it's entirely a business of managing op-sec, negotiating deals, and efficient operations -- all of which require traditional intelligence, the same as actual businesses.

Literally the same way anyone I know goes from small time employment to a serious position.