ABSTRACT
This chapter documents the growth of a drug trafficking network. It describes structural and functional changes in a criminal network across time. The chapter founds that the density of the network remained somewhat stable over time, although the network became more decentralised at the final time point measured. The last decade has witnessed a burgeoning interest in criminal networks. Descriptive accounts of criminal networks usually highlight their fluid form, loose associations between network members, and their capacity to respond rapidly to environmental change by modifying their structure. Despite these references to network dynamics, the great majority of empirical studies on criminal networks examine networks at a single time point only. The chapter fills this gap in the literature by examining the growth and evolution of a criminal network across time. Criminal networks 'cannot be planned in advance' and are 'an emergent phenomenon and not an intentional design'.
