If my local neighbourhood drug dealers are any indicator they recruit by word of mouth. A friend knows a friend who knows a friend who has a few attractive job offers so if there's somebody to vouch for you, a meeting is arranged.

They usually have some front business. "My guys" had a small logistics operation(obviously) - a single tractor trailer. Apparently the local liquor store was involved as well because it was run by the same people.

How do I know all this? Some of their trades, meetings and even disagreements happened out in the open. Nobody dared to be too curious about this. Also my friend's ex boyfriend was a drug dealer so she had a few stories to share.

I still vividly remember this one time when I saw one man handing out brick-shaped packages which were inside a car trunk to another man. At first I didn't know what I was looking at, but seeing how my eye contact made them uncomfortable I stopped staring and went on my way.