Territórios do tráfico de drogas em Cajazeiras-PB: características, organização e conflitos.

Abstract

Currently, the urban space presents intense contradictions and high crime rates. Given this context, it is worth mentioning the illicit drug dealing as a criminal practice that has aroused incessant concerns to the various segments of society. Illicit drug dealing creates functional territories, spreads fear, violence and socio-spatial discrimination. These phenomena need to be investigated to better understand this criminal activity. In this sense, this research aims to present the socio-spatial reality of the territories of illicit drug dealing in the urban space of Cajazeiras-PB, during the period between 2010 and 2016. This is a descriptive work based on the quantitative and qualitative approach. Methodologically, it used bibliographic research, collection of primary data, secondary data and semi-structured interviews. The secondary data sources used were the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics - IBGE, Atlas of Human Development, Cajazeiras City Hall, Sertão Diário and Ângelo Lima Blog. Secondary information was also collected from public agencies such as the Ferreira Júnior Promoter Forum, the Women's Public Chain, the Cajazeiras Regional Pattern Penitentiary and the Psychosocial Alcohol and Drug Attention Center - CAPSad, all located in the municipality of Cajazeiras. From the systematization of the data it was found that the sale of illicit drugs occurred more intensely in six districts of the city, the trade of illegal toxicants took place in the form of a retail subsystem, manifesting itself on two organizational levels. These neighborhoods consist of territories of drug dealing with a logic of organizational action of the zonal type. Neighborhoods that house the drug dealing territories have in common characteristics of precarious infrastructure, social inequalities and daily struggles for the use, occupation and maintenance of order in the territory. Conflicts stemming from the existence of the sale of drugs usually focus on the very territories of trafficking. Such conflicts destroy human lives, enhance the devaluation of space, promote residential segregation and the development of fear in people. As for the people involved in drug dealing, more were young and adults, of male gender, married, childless, with low level of schooling, residents of the urban outskirts of the city and without formal work. It is concluded that the retail drug trade in Cajazeiras presents aspects similar to the spatial and social configuration found in other studies referring to large and medium-sized Brazilian cities. The most noticeable differences compared to other cities analyzed are the arms capacity of individuals in the drug trade, the organizational level of trafficking and the intensity of negative effects in the territorial cut-off where they are located.