PROFILING DRUG SMUGGLERS

“The Phase-III smuggling organization will make a financial investment in the political arena in an attempt to solicit information about who is being targeted. A Phase-III organization might offer its smuggling services to a government (i.e., make an offer to a government agency to fly secretive cargo shipments of weapons into Latin America) in order to be viewed in a different light in respect to law enforcement interventions. The organization would receive more favorable treatment, such as notification if the DEA was going to break up its smuggling enterprise or if information had been gathered about targeted individuals."

Interesting info to be found here and here. It's quite a long and academic read, so if you can't be bothered with it all, scroll down to the section on Phase-III smuggling in the second link. That's the good stuff.