HAVANA, Cuba. – In Cuba, and possibly in other countries in the region, a “cambolo” is a stone, specifically a large stone. This term is very common among the little ones. “Throw a cambolo” or “slash the head with a cambolo” are expressions that refer to incidents or fights in which a person throws a large stone at his opponent or against something.
In any case, cambolo is used as an informal synonym for “stone.”
Crack cocaine is a highly addictive and powerful drug, which is obtained from powder cocaine through a simple conversion process. It usually comes in the form of small stones, which has earned it the nickname “stone” in street slang.
A cambolero ―derived from cambolo (stone)―, also in street and drug slang in Cuba, is a seller and/or user of crack cocaine (stone).
These camboleros or “stone” sellers usually wander the streets or remain in specific points of the city. They carry the stones with them and can identify, just by looking at it, when someone is looking for their product. Generally, they know who is a consumer dealer just as consumers know seller dealers. If their instinct or expertise raises any doubts when they see a stranger, they usually make a sign and ask them what they are looking for.
They are found mainly in the municipalities of Havana Center and Old Havana, which have historically been recognized as marginal environments and main centers of drug consumption. One of the neighborhoods where this drug is sold the most, and where it arrived CubaNetis The Sitesin Center Havana. In this place, business does not stop day or night.
“They spend the entire morning there. They don’t leave the corner. They stop there and, like the guards, they take turns,” says Julia*, a resident of the area, referring to the stone sellers who are located every day on the corner of Rayo and Maloja. “They also stand higher up in Estrella and Maloja, in Ángeles and in Águila.”
Lazarito*, a young man from Los Sitios, says that while “the chemist”, another very popular drug among young people, monopolizes all the attention, the stone business expands overwhelmingly also in the eyes of everyone, including the authorities. “There are many people chiva with the stone, money-trading people, who have sold everything for a gram of stone,” he says.
“Snitching” or “being snitched” on a drug is being hooked, sick, having created a great addiction and dependency. Moneylenders who are snitched on stone, like those addicted to any other stimulant, often go so far as to sell or pawn even their properties, even those of other people.
Israel*, for example, saw with great pain and frustration how his ex-girlfriend began one day selling clothes that he himself bought for her, until finally some equipment from the house “disappeared.” He admits that he realized it late. Although some acquaintances approached him in the neighborhood to tell him that his girlfriend was secretly smoking stone, he did not want to believe them.
“One day he started selling some tennis shoes that I gave him; He told me a story and over time my things began to go missing, my clothes, things from the house, until I discovered that he was stealing from me and selling everything to buy stone. It’s very sad,” says this young man from Havana who had to end his relationship.
The stone is easily accessible and affordable, although not as much as “the chemical”, which can be consumed for 150 or 200 Cuban pesos. It costs little to produce. It is produced by dissolving powdered cocaine in a mixture of water and ammonia or baking soda. The mixture is boiled until a solid substance is formed. The solid is separated from the liquid, dried, and broken into pieces (stones) that are sold as crack cocaine. These stones are white or off-white and vary in shape and size. They are almost always smoked. When smoked, large amounts of the drug pass into the lungs and produce an intense and immediate euphoria.
Cocaine, in any of its forms, is a markedly addictive drug, and that addiction appears to develop more quickly when the drug is smoked, as is the case with rock, than when it is snorted, as is generally the case with powder cocaine. .
In addition to the usual risks associated with cocaine use (constriction of blood vessels, elevation of temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure; and the risk of cardiac arrest and seizures), stone or crack users experience problems respiratory symptoms, such as cough, shortness of breath, and lung trauma and bleeding. It can also cause aggressive and paranoid behavior.
Marlon* is a young man from Santiago who found in stone the way to settle in Havana, pay his rent and cover his food expenses and those of his family in the East. “It makes a lot of money, you have no idea,” he says.
When he was dedicated to the production and sale of “stone”, his investment amounted to 15,000 Cuban pesos. That cost him a gram of cocaine, which he cooked with baking soda and water to extract the stones. Depending on their size, each stone sold for between 2,000 and 2,500 Cuban pesos, while the smallest ones sold for 1,500 or 1,000 pesos. “And from the churrupia [desperdicio, sobras] What was left, I cooked it again and got about three more stones,” he explains.
That “went away like water,” he says. “If you made six stones, for example, the same customer who bought one was the one who bought the other five later. Every half hour he came looking for another one.”
“The police recognize a snitchy moneylender and use them,” he explains. “They know that they are well informed about the stone and they do nothing to them. They use them to reach the sellers, but not the gram sellers, the real big ones, those who sell kilos and more.”
Knowing how an addict’s brain works, they offer him a dose or a gram of drug in exchange for giving away.
“And when you’re truly snitched, you don’t think that if you tell on the person selling you, he won’t be able to sell you more. What you think about is the gram that they are promising you for free,” continues Marlon*, who admits to having been hooked on the stone for a short period.
In April of this year, the Cuban authorities they recognized that the consumption of illegal drugs has increased on the Island. Although for decades the Cuban Government has promoted a policy of “zero tolerance” with illicit trafficking and drug use, many people believe that it does not do enough and that He is even involved in the business.
Armando* lives on Rayo Street. He is around 50 years old, enough, he says, for no one to tell him a story. Like many, he believes that there is no strong police control over drug consumption and distribution.
“They [las autoridades] They know everything that is happening, they know that on every corner of Los Sitios there is at least one cambolero. Of course they know it, as many of us know that the drug business also benefits the leaders and big fish of this country. This is not negligence, nor something they cannot control. This is called state distribution.”
In one note for CubaNet Regarding the drug known as “the chemical”, a source consulted stated something similar, that “in Cuba not a gram moves without the police knowing about it. That moves thousands and thousands of pesos; and attracts tourists looking for drugs and prostitutes.”
In these types of conversations, like the one held with Armando, names of important authorities in the country or people associated with the Castro leadership usually come up. In this case, El Cangrejo, who is actually Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, one of Raúl Castro’s most influential grandchildren. “That’s the one who handles drugs in this country. Everyone knows that. He is the owner of the cocaine that is in the expensive bars, where neither you nor I go,” says the man.
*The real names of the people interviewed have been changed to protect their identities.
