 In the past, smuggling rings tended to be more obscure, amateurish, and limited.As people smuggling has continued to grow, however, smuggling rings are far more extensive and organized.In Mexico, as Jim Chaparro—head of the anti-smuggling office at the US Immigration and Naturalization Service—puts it, the once small and informal smuggling business has evolved into a powerful web of "literally hundreds of syndicates, some at a low level and some at the kingpin level".