Strategies for fighting organized crime

Fighting Organized Crime: Background, Issues, Tactics
Organized crime today takes a variety of forms. Some entities and collectives are domestic to the United States exclusively. Many conglomerations today of organized crime operate at the transnational level because that is the most lucrative for the criminals. Consider the following definition: “Transnational organized crime (TOC) groups are self-perpetuating associations of individuals who operate, wholly or in part, by illegal means and irrespective of geography. They constantly seek to obtain power, influence, and monetary gains” (fbi.gov). As the FBI explains, organized crime can operate within a wealth of structures, from small single cells, to inter-working cells spread out over the nation, to networks, clans and hierarchies that all might develop into other manifestations. These collectives are generally exceedingly private and work to safeguard their work through intimidation, violence, bribery, international exchanges, interrupting intricate business dynamics, and commercial structures that are able to undermine national laws and codes (fbi.gov, 2016). The primary objectives for all entities of organized crime is largely money, as with wealth comes power and influence. Generating profit becomes the goal exclusive to all else and there will be a host of methods, schemes and rackets in place, most of them illegal, in order to generate profit. “Crimes such as drug trafficking, migrant smuggling, human trafficking, money laundering, firearms trafficking, illegal gambling, extortion, counterfeit goods, wildlife and cultural property smuggling, and cyber crime are keystones within TOC enterprises” (fbi.gov, 2016). These crimes do not exist in a vacuum. Such crimes impact legitimate business and economies that do follow the law and can have an indelible impact on the corruption of government leaders and others who work in an official capacity (fbi.gov, 2016). It’s not uncommon for these corrupt organizations to bribe or otherwise put government officials on the payroll, viewing it as a business expense to ensure that they can engage in their illicit activities indefinitely. Cells and networks of organized crime are vast and travel the globe. However, with the advent of the internet, it has become easier and easier to execute plans and methods from anywhere in the world. Thus, “…the extent of their presence within a particular area does not necessarily reflect the degree of the threat they pose” (fbi.gov, 2016). More and more groups of organized crime are engaging in techniques within the realm of cyber crimes in order to engage in a host of other unlawful acts, from things like Internet auction fraud, illegal gambling and other forms of classic criminal activity.
Cells and networks of organized crime operate underneath the sense of safety of ordinary reality and commerce. Quietly and illicitly the massive profits from these industries is amassed, untaxed. Even though so many people aren’t aware of these conglomerates of organized crime, they impact so many aspects of health and security. “It jeopardizes our border security, endangers our health through human trafficking and counterfeit pharmaceuticals, and seeks to corrupt officials domestically and abroad” (fbi.gov). There needs to be more aggressive action taken in order to destroy these entities in order to protect national security, alliances and the future.
This paper will examine some of the main ways that governments around the world attempt to thwart organized crime. The first way is one of the most common methods designed to chip away at units of organized crime: prosecuting those involved with it.
Prosecuting Members
Nations around the world have taken a stand together to push legislation that makes the participation in the acts of a criminal entity or organization illegal and strictly prohibited. One of the most influential pieces of legislation in this regard was the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute in America, put into place in 1970. “RICO defines racketeering very broadly, including murder, kidnapping, gambling, arson, robbery, bribery, extortion, drug dealing, and a list of federal offences, such as loansharking, counterfeiting, mail and wire fraud” (justice.gc.ca). RICO has helped to move forward in bringing to justice those involved with what is considered to be a pattern of behavior that falls into the category of racketeering (justice.gc.ca). Under RICO, citizens can also sue for damages to their companies or properties (justice.gc.ca). As Giuliani found in the 1980s, the power of RICO revolved around its efficiency, as it meant that government prosecutors could present to a jury the entire picture of how a criminal network, such as one of the mob families, engages in illicit activities. This can exponentially create a sense of clarity in regards to how these criminal families operate on behalf of the jury, empowering them to give harsher and longer sentences. “Rather than pursuing the leader or a small number of subordinates for a single crime or scheme, the Government is able to indict the entire hierarchy of an organized crime family for the diverse criminal activities in which that ‘enterprise’ engages" (justice.gc.ca). RICO has been so powerful that all five of the major New York families of the mafia were put out of business via their RICO convictions—from the Gambino’s to the Colombo’s (justice.gc.ca).
All five New York crime families have been disabled by RICO convictions. Giuliani (1986:106) points out that RICO allowed for the prosecution of the "entire upper echelon of the Colombo organized crime family." In addition, its requirement of proving a "pattern of racketeering activity" and its broad definition of "racketeering activity" allowed the prosecution in the Colombo case to include in a single indictment the various state and federal offences committed by that Family over a period of 15 years.
Prosecuting Kingpins
Another major tactic involves going after the Kingpin or leader of the network of organized crime. This method operates under the mentality that once they get the leader this will help to destabilize the entire unit, and create chaos within, perhaps enabling it to self-destruct. One method that law enforcement members have attempted to do this is to get members in custody for anything—large infractions, small infractions, whatever. This is designed to ensure that law enforcement can engage in further investigations into the collective, allowing entities like FBI to gather more data. “The goal is to get ‘smaller fish’ to ‘flip’ and testify against the heads of the organization. The ultimate aim is to disrupt the group. This ‘headhunting’ strategy is predicated on the assumption that OC operations are too complex to be proven in court” (justice.gc.ca). Naturally, not everyone is a fan of this strategy. Some have criticized it for being too time consuming and unreliable. Some professionals forget that organized crime is the result of vast networks of dangerous, violent, angry people who all deal within the realm of threats and intimidations. It can be difficult to get people within these organizations to “flip” particularly if they’ve been part of organized crime networks for years, especially if there is family involved. Furthermore, as one critic attested, “The problem with all this activity is that the government has failed to produce even a scintilla of evidence that any of these prosecutions have resulted in a diminution of organized crime’s illicit ventures. The federal government simply has no measures of the amount of harm caused by organized crime with which to measure such an impact… But other indicators seem to suggest that organized crime is alive and quite healthy despite these law enforcement efforts” (justice.gc.ca). These critics clearly understand how vast and expansive networks of organized crime actually are. Furthermore, the ties that bind members of organized crime networks often run exceedingly deep, with members feeling a strong sense of allegiance towards one another. This can be tremendously difficult for any member of law enforcement to attempt to disrupt.
Educating Citizens
It’s important to engage in transparency so that citizens might be both more informed of the illegal activities surrounding them in their ordinary lives and so that they might feel a greater sense of proaction. When it comes to activities like organized crime, they can easily feel like such activities are beyond their scope. This is not the case. Even the most well run criminal enterprises leave a slight trace of their actions. In New York, the public service campaign, “if you see something, say something” has been effective in giving citizens the message that it is their duty to report odd or suspicious behavior. There needs to be a greater level of outreach to ordinary citizens about organized crime, the signs that criminal enterprises leave behind. Customers need to be more educated and know that the things they purchase off craigslist or eBay are ethically sourced and that they are not funding organized crime (Unodc.org). Similarly when it comes to things like human trafficking and brothels, “According to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center, neighbors often don't realize they have a suspected brothel next door. ‘I think quite frequently that people don't know what they're seeing,’ spokesperson Andrea Austin said. ‘There might be suspicious behaviors, but they don't know it's a crime or who to call. It's more of a lack of understanding of what is going on’” (Brown, 2011). For example, neighbors might see men coming to and from a particular house on the street during odd hours, but not understand what that indicates. On the other hand, they might have suspicions but not know how or where to report. Educating citizens needs to be at the foundation of every movement to counteract organized crime.































References
Brown, R. (2011, July 27). Federal agents raid massage parlor in Overleaf. Retrieved from http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2011-07-27/news/bs-md-co-overlea-brothel-20110727_1_massage-parlor-belair-road-raid/2
FBI.gov. (2016, May 3). Organized Crime. Retrieved from https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/organized-crime
Justice.gc.ca. (n.d.). 4. Organized Crime Control Strategies and Their Effectiveness - Assessing the Effectiveness of Organized Crme Control Strategies: A Review of the Literature. Retrieved from http://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/csj-sjc/jsp-sjp/rr05_5/p5.html
UNODC.org. (n.d.). Let's put organized crime out of business. What's being done and how you can help. Retrieved from https://www.unodc.org/toc/en/whatsbeingdone.html