Organized Crime Outline! Random!

Fall 2009

International Organized Crime  Course Outline

Overview of Lectures and Seminars:

Week 1 (37 of calendar): Introduction to Organized Crime.

Monday 7 September: Introduction to organized crime, definitions and concepts,

by Tim Boekhout van Solinge.

No seminar this week

Read from book: Introduction, Chapter 1 and 2

Reading Notes – chp 1, 2

CHP 1

1. Setting

   1. Absentee landowners in 1960 rural, feudal Sicily paid local farmers to protect their land from cattle thieves, etc., including the use of violence. These strongmen = Mafiosi, who are organized into coalitions (cosca, or coshe, pl.)

   2. Mafiosi taxed villagers for the protection provided.

2. Profile

   1. Mafiosi:

      1. Middleman between state and community

      2. Favors between politicians and laborers

      3. Protection by politicians in exchange for favors (= impunity)

      4. This may result in interference with anti-mafia policy when government appears to be trying to create policy to stop political corruption by the mafia

3. Representations – hierarchy v. segmentation

   1. Structure

      1. Blok disagrees with theory that mafia is a “state within a state”.

      2. Blok: there is a seamless transition between the mafia and the state

         1. it is in fact a partnership with legitimate facilitators of O.C.

      3. mafia is not a single unified organization, but

         1. flexible structure

         2. open ended networks

         3. a parasite of the state

      4. Blok sees the structure as segmented

2. QUESTION: Blok refers to the absence of a hierarchical structure making it harder to prosecute Mafiosi. (p. 12) Isn’t the mafia hierarchical? Or is that an example of the difference between definitions of the mafia (Potter said it must be hierarchical).

4. Transitions

   1. Pre 1963 – mafia with state in a coalition at least to some degree; corruption

   2. June 1963 – Ciaculli affair. Mafia wars between families ends up with a car bomb killing seven police officers trying to defuse it. This opens up the mafia war to anti-mafia movement.

   3. 1970-2000 – Mafia goes underground, and not such a visible connection to the state (state v. mafia, coalitions dissolve

      1. Excellent cadavers / illustrious corpses – high-profile politicians who once worked with the Mafia, but tried to distance themselves during this time and were publicly assassinated.

      2. Maxi Trial 1986 – almost 500 mafia members were tried for mafia crimes. The judges were later assassinated.

      3. Pentiti – repentant ex-mafia members collaborated with the state to give evidence about the mafia’s activities.

5. Conclusions

   1. Blok definition of Mafia:

      1. Form of organized crime

      2. Collusion with public representatives (politicians)

      3. Contiguity

   2. Blok definition of Mafiosi:

      1. Agents

      2. Using violent methods

      3. In public zones

      4. For private wealth

      5. And honor

      6. And social status

CHP 2

1. INTRODUCTION

   1. Mafia is present. Although some decrease in the past 20 years, still a threat and still may rise again.

   2. Recent decline is due to effective anti-mafia policy

      1. Direct anti-mafia policy - reactionary

         1. law enforcement

         2. repression of crime

         3. ex – anti-racket legislation and enforcement

      2. Indirect anti-mafia policy – proactive

         1. civil society and public administration (politics)

         2. ex: dissolution of mafia-infiltrated political councils

         3. ex: pushing “legality culture” – less acceptable in society

      3. distinction between in/direct is theoretical, since overlaps in px

   3. evidence of decline

      1. qualitative – contents of correspondence shows weakness

      2. quantitative – number of arrests

2. UNIQUE ASPECTS OF C.N. AND ‘NDR

   1. SECRET BROTHERHOODS

      1. Silence as ultimate defense

      2. Loyalty (even if death) / status contract – presupposed reciprocal loyalty to e/o; mutual aid without limits

   2. WILL TO POWER - Control is the goal

      1. Geography, members’lives, government

   3. INCOMPLETE ENTREPRENEURIAL TRANSFORMATION – limited to local business in Southern Italy; defeated abroad by big drug cartels, limited markets, limited membership

3. LAW-ENFORCEMENT REPRESSION

   1. AFTER 1992-2002 crackdown on C.N. leaders, judiciary stronger against mafia, legislation encourages pentiti, and even investigated high-level politicians.

   2. REACTIONS / Goals

      1. Invisible: minimize impact of law enforcement by laying low (no public violence, terrorism, only kill other Mafiosi). t/f dramatic decrease in murders after 1990’s. t/f increase in small-scale crime for money (extortion, usury, small drugs)

      2. Cohesion, reduce defectors. Fewer members admitted, tighter recruiting

   3. CURRENT CONDITIONS

      1. Losing leverage with politicians

      2. Good evidence shows policy is effective

      3. Danger of re-emergence: young, young unemployed, and poor increasing

4. CONCLUSION – don’t claim premature victory.

Lecture Notes

1. Criminology:

   1. Defined

      1. social science (not sociology of law) ~ anthropological;

      2. focus on the social context;

      3. sociology is on a high-scale; psychology on an individual scale

   2. distinguished from Criminal Law

      1. crime derived from legally defined wrongs – the law. Commission of a crime requires that we fit a behaviour into the parameters of what a law defines is wrong, to justify arrest of the offender. (therefore, bias).

      2. Criminology merely studies behaviour without trying to establish guilt or justify any treatment of the criminals. Does not treat the person, just observes. (therefore, neutral)

   3. Anthropology v. ethnography

      1. Anthropology studies people and societies

      2. Ethnography a type of anthropology where societies are studied, not through statistical or quantitative data, but through field work like interviews and observations. Qualitative research

2. Scope of criminology:

   1. Crime is a social construct, the concept of which changes as society/media/ religion/government and acceptable behaviours change, and this is reflected by the law books. Nonetheless, law is factual.

   2. “de”/ “criminalization” the idea of how societies react to certain behaviours over time, and come to accept them as il/legal.

   3. Crime v. deviant behaviour: where something falls on this spectrum depends on social construct.

      1. Minority behaviour: acceptable although not normal

      2. Deviant behaviour : not normal, not acceptable

      3. Criminal behaviour : not normal, not acceptable, not permitted by law

   4. Consequences:

      1. US – punitive

      2. NL – increasingly punitive, but trad’y avoid imprisonment

3. Organized crime as specific subset of crime\history of organized crime

   1. Term “O.C.” is often used but not well defined. A buzzword used by governments. In field of criminology, a goal is to DEFINE O.C.

   2. In the US, term derived from p.c. way to label the Italian Mafia which was protested as discriminatory.

3. When does crime become organized?

   1. ONE definition of organized crime: Lyman Potter

      1. non-ideological – not religious or political, but purely economical

      2. hierarchical

      3. exclusivity - limited membership

      4. continuing over time (does not depend on specific members for continuation or operation)

      5. tasks – specific division of labor

      6. monopolistic (local power)

      7. rules and regulations exist for group members

      8. use of violence and bribery

4. Power of O.C., specifically the Italian Mafia

   1. Enormous political power

      1. Parliament

      2. Lawmakers

      3. Prime ministers (ex: Andreotti)

      4. In all big cities

5. Consider for reading: (on Italian Mafia, an example of O.C.)

   1. Old Sicilian Mafia – violent peasant entrepreneurs (1860 – 1960). During the origination, there was no state of Italy. Developments take place in southern rural Sicily

      1. WEAK STATE = more vulnerable to O.C.

   2. Govt usually has monopoly on violence. O.C. requires a shift of violence from public to private sector.

      1. Govt violence – must be justified

      2. O.C. violence – uncontrolled

   3. Defining not just O.C. but the term Mafia in particular

      1. Unique: Mafia is the only type of O.C. that includes

         1. collusion: working together with public servants and govt (which creates corruption)

         2. contiguity: continuous connection, physical grouping of parts

      2. Mafia uses violent crime in a public domain

Week 2 (38): Traditional Types of Organized Crime

Monday 14 September: The Italian Mafia, by Dina Siegel.

Seminar (Tue or Wednesday), Assignment: Is there organized crime in my city (or state/province/country)? Be able to explain and motivate (orally). Find a research partner during seminar and prepare subject.

Reading Notes - no reading for this lecture.

Lecture Notes

1. DEFINING OC

   1. Not clearly defined, but usually involves 2+ or 3+ people, and how the people committing the crime are positioned in society.

   2. Image of O.C. is constructed by media, politicians, criminologists

   3. International crime v. cross-border crime

      1. International: all crime which is prohibited by international laws – UN legislation labels them crime. Regardless of where crime takes place.

      2. Cross-border crime: activity involving 2+ countries, that violates at least 1 of those country’s laws (needs to be illegal in one of the participating countries).

         1. Q1: is it across borders?

         2. Q2: is it illegal in either one of those countries?

2. ITALIAN MAFIA IS UNIQUE AMONG O.C.

   1. Mafia is one of the earliest examples of OC – Siegel addresses only C.N.

   2. Structure

      1. Hierarchical for local networks (boss with consiglieri, capo, soldiers, facilitators)

      2. Horizontal family-style structure for international operatives, with leaders in each location (no longer part of Italian mafia, but local mafia; just communicate with Italian mafia).

      3. Prof. Siegel also disagrees with mafia is “state within a state”. Mafia defined:

         1. unlicensed, violent network

         2. autonomous from the state

         3. Mafia state of mind: power to threaten, cooperation, illegal goal achievement

         4. Violent enforcement: history of acting together and the Principles

   3. Principles

      1. Vendetta – blood revenge

      2. Honor (defended by blood oath)

      3. Silence

      4. Unlicensed violence

      5. Status contract for life (brotherhood, social exchange)

3. MAFIA IS STRUGGLING UNDER EFFECTIVE LAW ENFORCEMENT

   1. Anti-mafia strategy started with murder of J. Falcone after Maxi Trial

   2. Great organized repressin of mafia since 1992

   3. Pentiti helpful but have declined recently

   4. As a result of effective enforcement, secrecy paramount, back to roots, still operating from prison somehow; power local, not national (but int’ly connected)

4. RISE OR WOMEN IN MAFIA – women take over for imprisoned husbands and sons

Week 3 (39): Researching Organized Crime

Monday 21 September: How to Research Organized Crime?, by Damián Zaitch

No seminar this week.

Prepare your paper and research question (first by reading about the subject).

Reading Notes - - no reading for this seminar.

Lecture Notes

1. Challenges to researching OC

   1. Sources may be unreliable = Bad info = bias, sensationalized

   2. Secretive = “dark numbers”- the undiscoverable number

   3. Dangerous

   4. Nothing on facilitators / legit part

   5. Crime in consensual - no victims, t/f not reported

2. Sources

   1. Police records

      1. Biased, censored by police, D/n explain motives, historical, not comprehensive, tough access, low and midlevel only getting caught, not high level or legit (exception: Telephone taps are really great for details and motive, etc, but still censored).

      2. Specific with names

   2. Statistical records – quality depends on definition of O.C., stats about legit actors are usually skewed

   3. Reports: Interview with certain officials are helpful sources, may be biased, hard to access, rushed reports, files outdated but interviews are current

   4. News sensationalizes, create victim, use cross-check to improve quality. Great source for nexus between facilitators and OC bec it is a scandal.

   5. Interested informants: statement negotiated, so limited. Nature of pentiti’s role may be exaggerated out of pride.

   6. Best source: interview with people themselves; those who are not in jail yet.

Seminar Notes No seminar this week.

Week 4 (40): New Forms of Organized crime

Monday 28 September: The Russian and other types of Mafia, by Dina Siegel

Seminar (Tue or Wednesday), Read Chapters 4, 5, 6 + Prepare summaries, questions and discussion. Make appointment with your seminar teacher to discuss paper and research question.

Reading Notes

CHP 4 – human trafficking

1. PLAYERS

   1. sending countries (recruit, transport, less affluent)

   2. transit countries

   3. destination countries (affluent

2. THEORIES

   1. poverty = slavery

• smuggling v. trafficking

  • key: exploitation. smuggling is consensual; trafficking is servitude

  • trafficking uses fraud, coercion, abduction

1. globalization = awareness of wealth disparity and desperation for money and ease of commerce

2. corruption in government is key

• consulates, border patrol, law enforcement turn a “blind eye” or even aid/abet

3. CONCLUSION – poverty creates the supply, but corruption enables the trade to persist / perpetuates the demand. Corrupt authorities are the major players bec they are supposed to be stopping the crime.

CHP 5 – sex mkt in italy

1. HISTORY

• Decrease in Italian prostitution in 1980's bec street work became increasingly dangerous. t/f influx of foreign prostitution on the street. CN rejects prostitution as an activity

• prostitution in waves, change from stationary (street) to mobile

2. PLAYERS

• Albania

  • use violence

  • has a pimp in every place she moves

  • only recruits; process is disjointed

  • prostitute is a victim

• Nigeria

  • voodoo (not violence)

  • mistress or madame, not pimp

  • entire process managed from recruit to work

  • ER-EE relationship – women-run

CHP 6 – vehicle theft in bulgaria

• family style structure

• infiltration into legit car and insurance market by providing alternative to car insurance “protection” and guarantee to find and return your car

• Grupirovki – theft for ranson market

  • former law enforcement officials

  • used car theft

  • extorition

  • ransom, racketeering

• decrease in 21^st cent due to immigrant restrictions, improved car security technology

• strong presence of OC, since lots of poor people and low police capacity (weak state)

• Conclusion: car theft market decreasing

• Nexus: OC and business

Lecture Notes

Italian mafia is unique because nexus between mafia and politics.

Eastern European mafia nexus is between mafia and legitimate business.

• Gorbachav era shed light on the extent to which OC infiltrated Russian businesses and govt via glasnost (openness/transparency of government). 4 approaches to how OC arose in Russia, resulted.

1. SOCIO-ECONOMIC APPROACH

   1. Theory: OC exists because of socio-economic conditions

   2. Ex: txn from socialist to capitalist economy makes state weaker, more vulnerable. Privatization puts businesses back into the hands of the people, but only a small % are able to do this, and socio-economic polarization results, with majority in poverty.

   3. OC thrives in a weak state

2. HISTORICAL APPROACH

   1. OC is not a new development

   2. OC not caused by transition in economy

   3. Always existed but in different forms – bandits, urban criminals, common

3. POLITICAL APPROACH (similar but no = to socio-econ approach)

   1. OC becomes a necessity as an alternative to a weak and corrupt state

   2. Key: weakness of state

   3. Key: corruption of state

4. CULTURAL APPROACH

   1. Key: keep cultural context in mind, and allow flexibility

   2. Consider unofficial and official sources (news, media, songs, art)

5. HISTORY OF RUSSIAN MAFIA

   1. 16^th cent: social bandits

   2. 17^th: bandit = profession; violence

   3. 19^th – 20^th: bandits organize; prisons ~ crime universities

   4. 1917: OC division after the revolution

      1. Old school professional criminals (from urban gangs, etc)

      2. New school ideological criminals (revolting against Russian state)

   5. Post-Gorbachav: golden century - cross border art crime, people trafficking)

6. FORMS OF OC IN RUSSIA

   1. Political criminal inside the communist party (Stalin, Lenin, nomenklatura)

   2. Economic criminals – more please – ideology v. reality?

      1. Interrelatioships, trust, different definitions of corruption (gifts and bribes not considered criminal) – need more details on this.

   3. VVZ (“thieves of the law”) – underworld criminals

      1. Highly-educated anarchists

      2. Parasites of the state who profit but continue to resist society (do not work in society, not in army, not participating in judicial system). Survival = stealing from the system.

7. RUSSIAN OC TODAY – in 1992 60% of Russian businesses(?) were criminally involved somehow.

   1. FORMS

      1. VVZ: new Russian gangsters – use private and legitimate businesses for $

         1. oligarchs who may historically be viewed merely as entrepreneurs

   2. STRUCTURE

      1. ethnically diverse; t/f have additional ethnic tensions within the Russian Mafia. (slavs v. non-slavs)

      2. no godfather bec all want to be viewed as successful biz men.

   3. ACTIVITIES

      1. extortion, trafficking, gambling, drugs, assassins

      2. highly sophisticated due to financial schemes

   4. IN THE NL

Week 5 (41): The International Illicit Drugs Economy

Monday 5 October: Drug Prohibition and Drug (Organized) Crime, by Tim Boekhout van Solinge

No seminar this week.

Read from book: Chapter 3, 11 + 12

Reading Notes

Seminar Notes

Week 6 (42): The Licit and Legal World around Organized Crime

Monday 12 October: Facilitators of Organized crime, By Frank Bovenkerk.

Seminar (Tue or Wednesday), Read Chapters 9, 10, 13, 14, 15 + Prepare summaries, questions and discussion

Reading Notes

CHP 9 – hawala bankers

1. INTRODUCTION

• financial transactions without license and govt control / regulation

• client is “remitter”. give money to hawala banker, who calls another hawala and transfers cash to the designated “recipient”. two bankers.

2. HAWALA BANKING

   1. hawala v. bank

• both have a paper trail

• both make financial transactions without physically moving the money

• bank under legal obligation to record transactions, disclose certain trxns.

• hawala are alternatives to banks in parts of the world where

• ppl can't trust banks anymore

• banks do not provide loans or international svc

• not necessarily criminal to start but vulnerable to crime as regulation of legit banks forces OC criminals to look for alternative to banking

• attractive to illegal immigrants bec no ID needed or recorded

1. unique hawala

• informal

• low operational overhead

• fast, efficient

3. TRUST BETWEEN BANKERS AND CLIENTS

• relies on TRUST (social ties, community, usu. same ethnicity or religion. cheating = expulsion, dishonor, and economic suicide).

• no transparency or formality, just trust

4. HAWALA FOR OC

   1. THEORIES

• Passas: hawala not vulnerable to OC bec cannot handle large sums of $ - untrue

• Thompson: fluctuations in money traded by hawala bankers corresponds with opium harvest

• DOCM report in NL: lots of hawala money is OC money; ethnicity less important when for OC

• Author / v.d.Bunt:

• work with legal and criminal enterprises to launder and tax evade

• family networks big role

• 90% legit, 10% illegal

2. ROLE OF HAWALA

3. WEAK TIES – even though strong ties is a big deal, weak ties are workable as well because enables you to go outside your cultural network and MAKE PROFIT, which is the primary goal

4. TRAILS – myth that there are no trails; there are phone trails and even some paper

CHP 10 – lawyers and notaries

1. INTRODUCTION

• European Parliament approved a Money Laundering Directive after 9/11/01, compelling some professions to report suspicious financial transactions.

• this of course, compromises confidentiality standards.

• 2 ways to be involved: active aid/abet, or failure to prevent misuse of your svc

• why it happens

• status of professionals discourage investigation – reputation is trust and integrity

• lack of investigative ability to unravel complicated schemes

• professionals are attractive to OC bec of skills and expertise, legit appearance

• globalization in commerce and professional svcs also

• expansion of role of atty/notary over the years

2. RISK FACTORS: lower risk because status of professions?

3. INTERNATIONALISATION: bigger firms = less oversight, less control between colleagues

4. COMMERCIALISATION: more competition and law firms need money, so may take on higher-paying clients, even if OC (i.e., weak firm, weak link, weak state).

5. TYPE OF CULPABLE INVOLVEMENT

   1. LAWYERS

• mailbox or errand boy for people in prison

• intimidation

• assistance in human trafficking – falsify documents, marriage licenses

• abuse of firm resources (phone, fax) which are less likely to be monitored by police

• money laundering – store money in accounts for client, getting paid for no svcs

• economic crime

• mortgage and investment fraud

1. NOTARIES

• insufficient questioning

• lack of due care

• maintaining deceptive appearances

• safe-haven

6. SUPERVISION OF LAWYERS AND NOTARIES

• INDIV LEVEL: employment screening – preventative (author questions quality of internal monitoring, espc with big firms)

• GROUP LEVEL: codes of professional conduct – all members of profession have duty to report each other

• PUBLIC LEVEL: media

7. CONCLUSION – transparency on all levels is best

Lecture Notes

1. CHARACTERISTICS OF OC

   1. secret society

   2. strong leadership / hierarchical

   3. avoid formal structures of society

   4. criminal activity (extortion)

   5. additional element – the nexus between OC criminals and “outsiders” for assistance in providing illegal goods and services (including strongmen and tradesmen, exporters, transporters) – implied dependency.

2. MODERN OC

   1. locations: beyond sicily

   2. activities: beyond extortion – drugs, illegal goods and services.

• Q: does hierarchical structure apply to these OC activities also?

• OC must look for “weak spots” in a legitimate system (just like weak states) bec the poor or weak will be more desperate for money and more vulnerable to OC.

3. MONEY: money laundering – bringing ill-gained money into legit flow of money via real estate or other schemes (use lawyers, real estate agents and notaries as outsiders).

4. REPUTATION REHAB: charitable contributions, sports clubs (FC owners), hiring good PR

5. ROOTS: usually, low-class. OC as advancement

6. DEFENSE: higher education suggests some legitimacy, so use attys and accountants. even police, etc. corruption.

7. VAN TRAA: investigated NL police, and found police were using sting operations to infiltrate OC. Van Traa's problem with sting operations: accused govt of facilitating crime bec they had to cut deals with the OC to get the information they needed.

Week 7 (43): Eco-Crime and Green Criminology

Monday 19 October: Eco-Crimes in the Tropical Rainforests, by Tim Boekhout van Solinge.

Final Seminar (Tue or Wednesday), Read Chapters 7, 8 + Prepare summaries, questions and discussion, as well as questions for exam and paper.

Reading Notes

CHP 7 – diamonds in antwerp

1. INTRODUCTION

• OC is a prime example of globalization –

• extension of the market

• wide circulation of money

• world communication and technology and culture

• key condition in society for OC to develop is ability to keep activities hidden (no contracts, just parallel economy on internal conflict resolution – not legal conflict resolution)

• OC still not defined. Paoli: OC has two aspects with interesting relationship

• supply of illicit goods and svcs (disorganized)

• large-scale organization with collective identity and innder task division (not exclusively in illegal mkts)

• Transnational OC v. international OC

• international: prohibited by intern'l law, treaties, custom

• trasnational / cross-border: prohibited by domestic law of more than one country

• Argument: De Beers and other NGO's have tried anti-conflict diamonds campaigns, but contributed to raising value of the diamonds, which drives up demand and influences legal and illegal diamond mkts.

2. SMUGGLING CONFLICT DIAMONDS

• diamond smuggling = exploitation, abuse

• need certificate of origin to get into legal markets

• Diamond Quarter in Antwerp, Belguim

• why it happens

• in war times, for money

• in peace times, for investment

• conflict diamonds – from Sierra Leone, Angola, Liberia, Congo, about 4-5% of all mined diamonds. possibly finance civil wars.

• campaigns against conflict diamonds started after 1998 (De Beers); KPCS (Kimberly) requires certificates for diamonds now – 52 states, but hard to monitor and enforce certificates. Kimberly also doesn't address smuggling.

• why hard to enforce

• hard to tell origin of a diamond from mineralogical analysis

• false certificates are used

• smuggling to neighboring countries where there is no conflict, like Antwerp (4 diamond stock exchanges, over 4000 dealers, 70-90% diamonds pass through Antwerp, open borders, close to London

3. PROCESS OF SMUGGLING DIAMONDS

• many smugglers are caught in the airport

• if not, they have a 3-month visa and try to sell on one of the 3 mkts

• white market: legal buying and selling – diamond stock exchange

• grey market: unofficial, independent sellers

• black market: everything unofficial and illegal

• Siegel: not three mkts, but one big one, where il/legal cooperation happens. this illustrates Paoli's idea of disorganized dealing of illicit goods, flexible.

• key to smuggling: getting it to a legit mkt so a buyer can feel “safe”

• STEALING diamonds requires sophistication, at least on the large scale which it does occur in Antwerp heists

4. CONCLUSION – black mkt makes diamonds more attractive, which benefits thieves and the legit market.

CHP 8 – eco-crime

1. DEFINITIONS

• Conflict timber – liberian timber related to armed conflicts. timber itself is not illegal but the money from selling the timber is used to fund armed conflict.

• conflict timber v. illegal timber: illegal timber is logged without permits/stolen

• Eco-crime: illegal procurement and trade that threaten unique ecosystems (incl wildlife and plants)

2. CONFLICT TIMBER

• Liberia – President Charles Taylor 1997, used country's income to buy weapons (registered ships income, diamonds). when diamonds regulated, turned to timber.

3. ILLEGAL TIMBER

Seminar Notes