Guaranteeing transactions in the heroin market (see Moore 1977 for a lucid analysis) is even more arduous than in tobacco smuggling. On the one hand, relative to both price and quantity, drugs are lighter and more manageable, and hence easier to transport and hide. On the other hand, the disadvantages are considerable: the sources of supply are distant and difficult to contact and monitor; the financial commitment is considerable; and there is a long chain of intermediaries (Arlacchi 1983a: 219). The quality of opium varies, and there are no legitimate firms, as with tobacco, to select and standardize it; bad processing can ruin the merchandise; and, what is worse, everybody from big sellers to street pushers has a chance to steal or adulterate it. Under these conditions protection is scarcely child's play.

Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Busi…, loc. 633