Bribes, Bullets, and Intimidation is the first comparative work on drug trafficking in the ‘bridge countries’ of Central America – that is, ‘states that may neither consume nor produce sizable amounts of illegal drugs but that lie on favored paths carved out between centers of production and key consumer markets’ (p. 1). Encyclopaedic in its coverage and size, Julie Marie Bunck and Michael Ross Fowler's book is an important and impressive examination of ‘just how drugs have moved across the region and with what consequences’ (p. 8).

Central America's bridge role grew increasingly important during the 1980s due to the crackdown on drug trafficking to Florida through the Caribbean, with profound impacts on each country by the next decade. Concurrently, Bunck and Ross initiated their research, interviewing numerous officials and observers in each Central American country and the United States and making substantial use of government reports, regional newspapers and US court records. The book begins with an overview chapter followed by chapters on those countries with the most significant bridge experience: Belize, Guatemala and Honduras in the north, and Costa Rica and Panama in the south.

These chapters describe marijuana trafficking (important in Belize and Panama), then heroin, followed by the more significant trafficking of cocaine. They track Colombian cartels transporting cocaine through the region to market in the United States and eventually subcontracting distribution to Mexicans, first for cash (originally brokered by a Honduran kingpin in 1984) and then for drugs, thereby fuelling the growth of the Mexican cartels and their penetration of Central America. Both Colombians and Mexicans have relied on Central Americans for warehousing and transhipment through the region, in turn leading to the growth of regional cartelitos. Receiving appropriate attention throughout the book as well is the US war on drugs in the region, particularly interdiction, arrest and extradition efforts.

The same framework structures each chapter, with three principal sections: bridge-favouring factors, evolution of drug trafficking, and drug trafficking routes and organisations. Specific factors favouring an individual country for trafficking vary, but several stand out – geography, economy, criminal justice systems and the role of the military. The authors single out geography as the most important, noting that all of these countries ‘have been overwhelmed by the drug trade’ (p. 13). The strongest state makes the point, as transnational narcotraffickers ‘have overmatched even Costa Rica's institutions, procedures, and antidrug resources’ (p. 188).

Among the book's most fascinating dimensions is its detailed exploration of the drug trafficking consequences of each country's geography, particularly in the sections that describe drug trafficking routes and organisations. Especially strong are those on Belize (26 detailed pages on its five most prominent routes) and Costa Rica. Indeed, throughout, Bunck and Fowler highlight ‘the geotactics of the drug trade’, meaning ‘the manner in which drug networks have formulated trafficking strategies by assembling different methods, routes, and logistics, many dependent on geographic factors’ (p. 21).

While each country features impoverished populations vulnerable to narcotraffickers' material temptations, especially in remote areas perfect for illicit airstrips or coastal drug drops, narcotraffickers also exploit economic strengths. The extensive commercial activity of the Colón free zone in Panama and the first-class banking services of Panama City offer ample opportunities for laundering drug profits, as does the region's strongest economy, Costa Rica. In addition, traffickers believe that customs inspectors are less suspicious of, say, ‘a load of flowers or seafood or other Costa Rican export than one arriving directly from Colombia or from any other Central American country’ (p. 137).

The superior criminal justice system of Costa Rica also stands out against the rest of the region, although here too strengths can be worked by narcotraffickers: ‘the judicial system has been so overwhelmingly focused on zealously guarding civil liberties that it has seriously disadvantaged law enforcement’ (p. 141). More typical of the region are Guatemala, where ‘bribery by traffickers has been chronic, audacious, and seldom punished’ (p. 206), and Honduras, where corruption ‘has been truly spectacular in its depth and extent’ (p. 262).

The military has been a critical factor in Guatemala and especially Honduras and Panama, with significant numbers of military actors protecting narcotrafficker operations with impunity and great profit. A US official's ‘educated guess’ in 1988 for Honduras was that ‘all of the senior officials have knowledge [of drug trafficking], many are involved … And they are all reaping the profits’ (p. 266), yet over a decade later only ‘five soldiers had been sentenced to prison terms on drug-trafficking charges’ (p. 267). For Panama, Bunck and Fowler provide an excellent account of the ‘narco-militarism’ of the Omar Torrijos and Manuel Noriega years. Ironically, Noriega constrained drug activity to eliminate rivals and as part of his game with US officials so that with the end of his regime and the disbanding of its military, ‘drug trafficking soared’ (p. 345).

A book of such broad scope will invariably have weaknesses. The authors intend to make a contribution to the theoretical discussion on the purported retreat of the state, but that is not where the considerable value of this book lies. There are topics that receive incomplete attention, such as the role of local cartelitos, especially in the last decade, and explaining and evaluating relevant domestic policies. Although the involvement of Colombian narcotraffickers throughout Central America is well described, much less is explored about the now more important role for the region of Mexican cartels. While each of the country chapters is uniformly strong for the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s, some are less so for the years that follow, notably the chapter on Guatemala (which also seems to have more errors).

That said, the more important point remains that Bribes, Bullets, and Intimidation is a major accomplishment, and indeed one that I am sure will remain the authoritative source on this subject for a long time to come. I hope for revisions updating this already impressive work, but even then, the essential finding is unlikely to change. Despite all of the advances in interdiction, ‘the goal of significantly interrupting a sizable percentage of transshipment operations has become progressively more difficult as the decades have passed’ (p. 378).