While Southeast Asian groups had success in trafficking heroin to the United States, they initially had difficulty arranging street level distribution. However, with the incarceration of Asian traffickers in American prisons during the 1970s, contacts between Asian and American prisoners developed.
Southeast Asian organizations encountered difficulties in establishing street-level heroin distribution networks in the US, however, they eventually overcame these challenges with the imprisonment of Asian traffickers in American correctional facilities during the 1970s, resulting in the formation of ties between Asian and American inmates.