Merger: The Conglomeration of International Organized Crime

• NCJ Number: 184597
• Author(s): Jeffrey Robinson
• Date Published: 2000
• Length: 383 pages
• Sale Source: The Overlook Press
• Publication Format: Book (Hardbound)
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This volume describes the development of a global network of connections among organized crime groups; explains how digital communications, world markets, and the Internet have led to the formation of these global crime cartels; and concludes that sovereignty prevents international law enforcement efforts to address the problem.

Abstract

The analysis uses information provided by police, government officials, and researchers in the United States and other countries, as well as information from print sources. The discussion traces the connections between such groups as the Sicilian Mafiosi; the Camorra from Naples; the Ndrangheta from Calabria; the Chinese Triads; the Russian, Hungarian, and Czech Republic maffiyas; and organized crime groups from Colombia, Mexico, Nigeria, and Vietnam. The analysis emphasizes that technological developments that have globalized other activities have changed the nature of crime forever. In addition, the criminal justice system was intended to handle local crime and is archaic, incapable by design of dealing with global materials, and on the verge of collapse. The inability of modern society to deal with global crime has reached such overwhelming proportions that it will be a defining issue for the 21st century. International cooperation and international law enforcement cooperation are essential to address the problem. One proposal is for an international agreement that no country may use its sovereignty to harbor criminals. In addition, denying transnational criminal organizations the cash flow and reinvestment they need to grow could bankrupt them, but attorneys, bankers, and others who handle the money are often the same people behind those who make the laws. Taking attorneys, bankers, accountants, and company-formation agents out of the equation and denying companies and secret bank accounts based in tax havens the right to function in the rest of the world might start the process of change. Index and approximately 500 references