Come at the king, you best not miss: criminal network adaptation after law enforcement targeting of key players

This paper investigates the impact of targeting key players by law enforcement on structure, communication strategies, and activities a drug trafficking network. Data are extracted from judicial court documents. The unique nature investigation – which saw player being arrested mid-investigation but police monitoring continuing for another year allows to compare network before after targeting. combines quantitative element where statistics exponential random graph models used describe explain structural changes over time, qualitative content wiretapped conversations is analysed. After targeting, members favoured security efficiency, although criminal collaboration continued arrest player. contributes growing literature efficiency-security trade-off in networks, discusses policy implications repressive policies illegal markets.