ABSTRACT
Drug robberies are multifaceted enterprises possessing "problematic outcome[s] and potentially serious consequences". Success requires that drug robbers marshal and dispense coercive power sufficient to secure cooperation that is both rapid and lasting. Invariably, drug robbers must get close to victims without alerting them that predation is in the offing. A popular approach tactic was to purchase from would-be victims on one or more occasions prior to robbing them. In announcing the offense, drug robbers "seek to dramatize with unarguable [sic] clarity that the situation has been suddenly and irreversibly transformed into a crime". Each phase of the offense—from approach to announcement to goods transfer—must establish it if drug robberies are to have any chance of success. Like all stick-ups, drug robbery is about control, about how to secure it as rapidly and as completely as possible. Finally and perhaps most importantly, team approaches required that proceeds from drug robberies be shared.
