Civil dimension

EXPLANATORY FACTORS

9. Following the example of Dr Mark Galeotti, Director of the "Russian and Eurasian organised crime" research unit at Keele University (United Kingdom), your Rapporteur is anxious to stress that many factors are involved in the constant development of the networks. On the whole, these factors can be gathered into five categories, as indicated below (see Mark Galeotti, "Transnational Organized Crime: law enforcement as a global battlespace", in Emerging Security Threats, Bunker R., ed., 2002).

10. It should be noted that influence peddling and corruption are among the most difficult barriers to overcome in getting countries to take effective action against organised crime. In the Third World in particular, organised crime leaves its trademark in electoral processes, with entire sectors being under its de facto influence in China, Vietnam, Burma, Pakistan and Russia and in most of the former Soviet Republics, as well as in many African and Latin American countries.
a. Political factors first of all,
11. Political factors to which criminal networks are quick to respond. The collapse of the USSR, the war in the Balkans or the retrocession of Hong Kong (July 1997) and Macao (December 1999) to the Chinese People’s Republic have enabled organised crime to prosper. Delegates will recall that the conflict in the Balkans facilitated heroin transit to Europe through that region, and that the flood of refugees and migrants from the combat areas towards the EU has seen the emergence of the formidable Albanian mafias, whose role in several cases involving narcotics, illegal immigration and prostitution has been demonstrated. These mafias have established themselves on a permanent basis in Italy, where they have planted cannabis in Apulia and Calabria, and are said now to be trying to compete with the Italian organisations. They are also expanding in France, taking advantage in particular of a strong community in the Rhône-Alpes region, not far from Switzerland where many Kosovars live. The Hong Kong Triads have extended their activities over the entire territory of the People’s Republic, investing in the new Chinese economy and establishing ties with national figures.
b. Economic factors, second,
12. Economic factors to which organised crime is obviously extremely sensitive. Here your Rapporteur will stress the globalisation of trade and the creation of common markets: NAFTA (North American Free Trade Area), MERCOSUR (South American Common Market), ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) and the European Common Market, all of which benefit parallel economies, illegal products being hidden among imported/exported goods. As a rough guide, in 1999 the American customs services were in a position to check no more than 3% at most of the goods imported into the United States. This figure might decrease with the growth in the next few years in the volume of goods traded (see The Terrorism Research Center, "Global Context of International Crime – Implications of a Changing World", http://www.homelandsecurity.com).
13. It is noteworthy that, just as firms adapt to developments in the market, the networks respond to their environment. This sometimes dazzling capability of yielding to circumstances is part of the explanation for their permanence, and puts their opponents in a position in which they always lag behind.
c. Application of the laws, third,
14. Application of the laws which paradoxically may be at the root of the creation of parallel markets. Although they may act as a deterrent (see the pressures applied to the Italian and American mafias, forced to be careful or in Japan the end of the policy of tolerance towards the boryokudan Yakuza), successful police raids, the passing of anti-drug laws or increases in taxes on tobacco or petrol may have surprising counter-productive effects. Thus the very powerful Yamaguchi-gumi Yakuza is said to be steadily leaving the street for the benefit of its "franchised" clients and concentrating on the more strategic aspect of its enterprises. Similarly, victories over the drug cartels in Peru and Bolivia have brought the narcotraficantes closer to the United States; they now operate in Mexico as cartelitos that are more flexible – and more difficult to fight.
15. Thus the disappearance of a group due to action by the forces of order would seem to have but a limited effect on the overall level of fraud. Consequently action by the State might also be seen as the tool of Darwinian-type natural selection that allows the better organised networks to develop.
16. More generally, differences in legislation between countries bordering each other may contribute to the emergence of cross-frontier trafficking, just as democratisation may enable criminal groups to manipulate newly established public institutions. Ironically, the spread of international law and embargoes, sanctions and conventions also enable them (with the support of authorities and/or firms) to supply those who might be affected by such measures with prohibited commodities.
d. Technological factors, fourthly,
17. Technological factors which are increasingly shaping the modi operandi of criminal structures and strengthening their interaction. In the 1990s the appearance of the "Net" and the spread of new information and telecommunications technologies gave these structures areas of operation beyond their wildest dreams, such as electronic trading in commodities of all kinds (pharmaceuticals, synthetic drugs, etc.) and money laundering by Internet banks. The formation of real "virtual gangs", whose members could operate from various countries without ever meeting, is now being mentioned, because cyberspace is no longer just a resource but is really a "territory" (see, for example, the possible transformation into gangs of groups of hackers and crackers, who up to now have been fraudulently breaking into computerised systems for fun, as a challenge or seeking notoriety, and interfering with or distorting their operation).
18. In the experts’ opinion, governments have only lately become aware of this cybercrime; they have but few means to combat it (see their lack of resources and competent staff, the inhibiting effect of their bureaucracy, the media and the electorate). Raymond Kendall, the former Secretary-General of INTERPOL, says the same, taking the view that only co-operation between the public sector and the private sector – where most of the specialists in the field are to be found – might help to contain this phenomenon (see Moisés Naím, "Meet the World’s Top Cop", in Foreign Policy, 01-02/2001).
19. In addition to these new technologies comes the use by mafiosi of the GPS (Global Positioning System) and of cryptography, to say nothing, of course, of the improvement in transport resources (see the aircraft built from composite materials covered with a layer of paint that absorbs radar waves – enough to make them undetectable by the surveillance tools used by customs and air police – that Mexican criminal organisations had purchased in 1995, or again the warships based on pleasure boats intended for pirates on the South-East Asian seas that the Italian police had found in a secret workshop in Rome in 1997).
20. Lastly, your Rapporteur will refer to advances in agricultural techniques, which make it possible today to grow psychotropic substances in regions with inhospitable climates (see, for example, the cannabis harvests in Oregon, United States).
e. Factors within the networks, to conclude,
21. Factors within the networks which shape organised crime and influence its markets. Thus "marriages of convenience" (INTERPOL terminology) between gangs in the same country and/or different countries may contribute to greater efficiency, just as rivalries and internal conflicts may give rise to a more powerful organisation.
22. Structural changes within rings are also important, reflecting the constant challenges that face them (see the large gangs which, as circumstances dictate, reform into semi-autonomous bands and/or small ad hoc teams operating within looser and less structured networks with a stronger "spirit of enterprise"). In this sense organised crime is said to be no longer the prerogative of petty criminals alone: it is also the province of "white-collar workers" (telecommunications engineers, chemists, agronomists, lawyers, etc.) whose special skills, contacts, nationality, etc. may be of value.
23. In your Rapporteur’s opinion it is obvious that improvements in the activities of the networks and their increasingly transnational and many-faceted nature are not calculated to make the work of those who apply the criminal law easier. Traditional barriers between national law enforcement agencies and the tight seals between levels of fraud also prevent the investigation services from following the rings.
24. When confronted by these multidisciplinary organisations, governments tend to adopt strategies according to type of activity (drug trafficking, arms dealing, etc.) or to create interdepartmental working groups with bureaucracies that are sometimes very cumbersome (see the new American Homeland Security Department, which has a staff of some 170,000 people, brings together 22 federal agencies and deals inter alia with combating trafficking in narcotics).

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