"Selling is More of a Habit than Using": Narcotraficante Lola la Chata and Her Threat to Civilization, 1930-1960

Abstract

This article uses materials of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and its predecessor, the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, and of the U.S. Department of the Treasury to document the thirty-year career of the female Mexican heroin peddler and trafficker Lola la Chata and the efforts of police, government officials, and diplomats on both sides of the border to undermine her criminal empire. By placing women within contemporary studies of drug trafficking, la Chata complicates the masculine constructions of the history of narcotics. An examination of the evidence reveals la Chata's transnational threat and her fluidity and flexibility in responding to policy shifts in Mexico, the United States, and Canada over three decades.