Dr Mike Salinas

Mike Salinas is a Lecturer in Criminology in the Department of Sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. He is a criminologist/ethnographer with a particular interest in offending careers over the life-course, illegal drug markets, and illegal drug use. His Ph.D (University of Manchester, 2014) was based on a six-year ethnography of drug suppliers: the mechanics of their operations and the reasons for their fluctuating involvement in the illicit drug supply-chain.

In 2015 the study was awarded ‘Best PhD’ in Organised Crime by the International Association for the Study of Organized Crime (IASOC, Washington D.C.). He has studied the social and logistical intricacies of drug markets at various levels of the supply chain –  including at the retail, wholesale and import/export stages.

He is currently publishing work based on his research into drug markets in Ibiza, and localised steroid (and other ‘image and performance enhancing drugs’) markets in the UK.