Dead Cows for Piranhas

Book excerpt: A high-octane journey into the brutal underworld of the South African and transnational drug trade. Journalist Hazel Friedman was on assignment in Thailand to document the stories of the increasing number of South Africans convicted as drug mules when she made a horrifying discovery. Many of the drug traffickers are in fact decoys. These individuals find themselves coerced or deceived into drug running. The 'dead cows' are set up to be arrested, thereby allowing professional mules carrying much larger quantities of drugs to slip past undetected. Through the heartbreaking accounts of the prisoners, Friedman became convinced that the decoys should not be viewed as perpetrators of narcotics trafficking. Her own high-risk investigations – including an attempt to get recruited as a drug mule (filmed with a secret camera), as well as trying to track down the middlemen – appeared to confirm this. She concluded that many drug mules are victims of human trafficking – as pawns readily sacrificed in a profit-driven war waged by global drug barons.