I find that a strange comparison. Certainly there are bigger fish to fry. In both drugs and credit cards there is a whole ecosystem. Cards probably more straight forward as these are typically being sold on websites and you thus have a clear marketplace. Which I'd differentiate a marketplace from a dealer on a corner. Go after the people who are the generators. That's people making the drugs or people stealing the cards in the first place. What do you mean there's no "big fish." If we're going to use a fish analogy it's not the size I care about, but the type.

I mean it's probably a guy who knows someone who can cook meth, rather than a servant of some kingpin who is running a massive drug conglomerate hiding who knows where.

Okay? But somewhere down the line is the person cooking meth. I'm not sure what you're getting at.

And somewhere down the line means in a random kitchen for a while and then dismantled, not a huge lab buried somewhere. Nobody does more for the sake of selling drugs, unless they use drug money to fund their revolution, guerrila war, or whatever like that. Think more of lock stock and two smoking barrels, rather than breaking bad.