OC M1A1

CHAPTER ONE

Introduction to Organized Crime

Abadinsky, Organized Crime 10th ed.

During the past 15 years, technological innovation and globalization have proven to be an overwhelming force for good. However, transnational criminal organizations have taken advantage of our increasingly interconnected world to expand their illicit enterprises.

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ATTRIBUTES OF ORGANIZED CRIME

1. Absence of political goals.

2. Is hierarchical.

3. Has a limited or exclusive membership.

4. Constitutes a unique subculture.

5. Perpetuates itself.

6. Exhibits a willingness to use violence.

7. Is monopolistic.

8. Is governed by rules and regulations.

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THE ATTRIBUTES ARE ARRAYED IN A STRUCTURE

These attributes are arrayed in a structure that enables the criminal organization to achieve its goals--money and power.

A criminal group will pass through stages of development and--if sufficiently stable--mature into an organization with most, if not all, of the attributes.

Two variables that synopsize organized crime:

1. Non-ideological.

2. Instrumental violence.

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ORGANIZED CRIME AS A BUREAUCRACY

Bureaucracies are rational organizations sharing a number of attributes:

 A complicated hierarchy.

 An extensive division of labor.

 Positions assigned on the basis of competence.

 Responsibilities carried out in an impersonal manner.

 Extensive written rules and regulations.

 Communication from the top of the hierarchy to persons on the bottom via a chain of command.

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BUREAUCRACY HAS INHERENT WEAKNESSES FOR CRIMINAL ORGANIZATIONS

A criminal organization structured along bureaucratic lines has inherent weaknesses:

 Communication from top management to operational-level personnel can be intercepted.

 Generating and maintaining written records endangers the entire organization.

 Death of incarceration of command personnel can leave dangerous gaps in operations.

 the absence of personal ties makes betrayal more likely.

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COMPARTMENTALIZE TO OFFSET WEAKNESSES

 Operational/street level personnel are organized into cells and know only other members of their cell.

 They may not know for whom they are working.

 If a cell is lost, the result of law enforcement infiltration, for example, the organization can continue to function uninterrupted and the cell is eventually replaced.

 Cells are bundled under the direction of a controller who is not in direct contact with and may not even know the other controllers.

 A controller who is lost is quickly replaced by the central command opeating out of an area of relative safety, such as another country.

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FRANCHISING AND CREDENTIALING

 A member of a criminal organization may be an independent entrepreneur, operating a franchise. The franchise is a grant of authority to engage in business activity under the aegis of the organization.

 The franchise provides a sense of entitlement and credentials

 Credentials enable the possessor to engage in criminal activity knowing that he will be supported and protected by the franchisor--the criminal organization granting the franchise.

 Organizational affiliation provides a form of credentialing by reputation.

 In the Hobbesian world occupied by criminals, the member of an organization with sufficient martial capacity can offer services typically reserved for government such as contract enforcement and adjudication of disputes.

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CRIMINAL NETWORKS, BROKERS, AND POINTS OF CONVERGENCE

 A network consists of a collection of connected points--points of convergence.

 A criminal network has points of convergence where participants congregate--"hangouts."

 Hangouts welcome their patronage and may be owned by or under the control of criminal entrepreneurs.

 Hangouts serve primarily as places for socialization, but also opportunity to advance business interests. The subculture contains gaps between persons with complementary resources and information. A third party--a broker-- usually for remuneration, can fill the gap by constructing a "social bridge."

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TRANSNATIONAL ORGANIZED CRIME (TOC): GLOBAL OPPORTUNITIES

 Openness in trade, finance, travel, and communication has given rise to massive opportunities for criminal organizations.

 The traditional Mafia-type organization was linked to a territory and exercised control in that territory by intimidation and extortion.

 Criminal organizations have expanded to include new opportunities derived from the globalization of markets and widespread technology.

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TRANSNATIONAL ORGANIZED CRIME (TOC): AND TERRORISM

 TOC: Self -perpetuating associations of individuals who operate transnationally

o for the purpose of obtaining power, influence, monetary and/or commercial gains,

o and protect their criminal activities through a pattern of corruption and/or violence,

o or through a transnational organizational structure.

 They exploit differences between countries.

 They attempt to gain influence in government, politics, and commerce.

 They attempt to insulate their leadership and membership from detection, sanction, and prosecution through their organizational structure.

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THE COLLAPSE OF THE SOVIET UNION: A PIVOTAL EVENT FOR ORGANIZED CRIME

 It intertwined with the rapid expansion of global markets.

 The decline in political order and deteriorating economic circumstances have led to a growing underground economy that habituates people to working outside the legal framework.

 Better-organized, internationally-based criminal groups with vast financial resources are creating a new threat to the stability and security of international systems.

 The Prohibition example in 1920s US: It was a catalyst for the mobilization of criminal organizations and cooperative ventures of syndication.

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THE NEW FACE OF ORGANIZED CRIME (OC)

 OC is "increasingly similar to a transnational commercial company, combining rigid hierarchies and territorial rooting, with flexible structures that are easily adaptable to changing circumstances" (Patrinani, 2009).

 Expanded capacity of contemporary criminal organizations derives from intensification of goods traditionally traded by OC--drugs, arms, and sex workers.

 Country of destination is not the country of origin.

 Arrangements must be made that involve the use of banks, finance houses, customs formalities, and require ongoing relationships with criminal organizations of different countries.

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IMPACT OF MIGRATION

 Migration, legal and illegal, broadens the reach of existing criminal networks.

 Among the migrants are affiliates of criminal networks, with crime- related skills, knowledge, and contacts. Chinese, Nigerian, Italian, and Russian groups are examples of network proliferation through migration.

 Globalization created a nexus with terrorism.

 Today's criminal networks are fluid, striking new alliances with other networks around the world, and engaging in a wide range of illicit activities, including cyber-crime and providing support for terrorism.

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WHAT IS TERRORISM? WHO IS A TERRORIST?

 Terrorists are non-state actors who seek to intimidate an audience larger than their immediate victims in the hope of generating widespread panic.

 Terrorism exploits non-combatant deaths as a means to advertise a cause.

 Terrorism seeks to damage the fabric of the society.

 Traditional OC, like the American Mafia, requires the preservation of state structures, because they feed on those structures.

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CIUDAD DEL ESTE (CDE) NEXUS BETWEEN OC AND TERRORISM

 Paraguay-Brazil-Argentina tri-border area--a free trade zone for contraband, infested with criminals and terrorists.

o An oasis for informants and spies, peddlers of contraband and counterfeit products, traffickers in drugs, weapons, and humans, common criminals, mafia organizations, Islamic terrorists, yakuza, Colombian and other Latin American crime groups, Chinese Triads, al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, FARC, and others.

 Local structures used by both terrorist and criminal groups may overlap, but cooperation is ad hoc.

 Terrorists and criminal groups learn from each other and utilize each other's special skills in particular operations.

 Terrorists are increasingly turning to criminal networks to generate funds and to acquire logistical support.

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LINKS BETWEEN OC AND TERRORISM

 Terrorists turn to street crime--by extension, OC--money, false documents, border crossing, weapons.

 Organized criminals have become "service providers" for terrorists.

 Al Qaeda uses the Neapolitan Camorra to move its operatives through Europe to safe houses in Paris, London, Berlin, and Madrid.

 As these groups work together more, they begin to share each others' goals.

 There is no clear line delineating Chechen rebels fighting against Russian sovereignty, from Chechen organized crime.

 FARC units in Colombia raise money to support their insurgency by taxing drug trafficking operations.

 Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan use heroin to finance their efforts.

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NARCOTERRORISM

 Terrorist acts carried out by groups directly or indirectly involved in cultivating, manufacturing, transporting, or distributing illegal drugs.

 Terrorist organizations and dug traffickers can link on facilitation, protection, transportation, and taxation.

 Traffickers and terrorists have similar logistical needs: matériel and overt movement of goods, people, and money.

 Relationships are mutually beneficial: drug traffickers gain from access to terrorists' military skills and weapons supply; terrorists gain a source of revenue and expertise in illicit transfer and laundering of proceeds.

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OC AND TERRORISM: SIMILARITIES AND DISSIMILARITIES

 Colombian drug cartels and terrorist groups are often organized along compartmentalized lines.

 Italian and Asian OC groups and terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda use sponsorships, apprenticeships, and initiation ceremonies.

 OC and terrorist groups need to launder their financial assets.

 Politically motivated groups want to subvert the status quo; criminally motivated groups want to maintain it so they can keep operating.

 Terrorist groups and OC differ on means and ends: terrorists use fund to further political ends; OC seeks to form a parallel government while coexisting with the existing one.

 OC groups are not motivated by an ideology; terrorist groups try to give their activities an altruistic aura to justify their acts and gain sympathy for their cause.

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GREED REPLACES IDEOLOGY: TERRORISM CAN TURN INTO OC

 A terrorist group may abandon its political goals or the use of violence to achieve those goals.

 A transformation occurs as individual skills developed as terrorists and the advantages of organization are mobilized in the pursuit of pecuniary interests: terrorists become organized crime.

 In Northern Ireland, the Irish Republican Army has relinquished violence as an organizational tool.

 The Marxist guerillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) are becoming increasingly involved in drug trafficking and are losing sight of their ideological motivation.

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