Organized Crime in the 21st Century: Trends and Enforcement

Introduction: Defining Organized Crime

Organized crime presents unique challenges for law enforcement in the 21st century. As noted by Bjelopera and Finklea (2012) in their report to Congress on the history of organized criminal activity in the United States, modern organized criminal networks tend to be more fluid and less hierarchical than organized associations of the past. Organized crime networks are also more apt to outsource critical aspects of their operations, which can make building a unified case a challenge for law enforcement agencies (Bjelopera & Finklea, 2012, p. 1). Diverting resources to combat terrorism has also left law enforcement agencies in the United States with fewer financial resources to combat other forms of organized crime, although some methods used to trace both types of organizations — such as patterns of money laundering — are similar across both types of illicit associations.

Organized crime is defined as "criminal activity that, through violence or threatening people, seeks to extract illegal or legal rents from the community" (Calderon, 2015). Organized criminal organizations may include the Italian Mafia, Cosa Nostra, or any number of less well-known illegal groups. Unlike terrorist organizations, organized criminals are primarily driven by the need to make a profit, not by an ideology. They may have equally rigid systems as terrorist entities in allocating power and controlling the activities of members, as well as punishing those who deviate from group rules (Finklea, 2010, p. 3).

In general, organized crime involves criminal activities including but not limited to "prostitution, undocumented immigration, illegal substances, stolen goods, piracy, illegal gambling" — goods and services that the public is prohibited from obtaining by legal means and which are therefore provided illegally (Calderon, 2015). Organized crime may also involve selling stolen goods at a lower price or using extortion — for example, demanding that legitimate businesses pay for "protection." Organized crime poses a threat to the community through the threat of violence and by undermining legitimate businesses, reducing trust in and respect for the law if authorities cannot contain its spread. Additionally, as noted by Finklea (2010), there is an overall negative economic effect from organized criminal associations' illegal activities due to a loss of tax revenue that could be gained through legitimate purposes, such as when organized crime groups sell illegal goods or engage in identity theft.

In the United States, in recent years the most common method of policing organized crime has been leveraging the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) of 1970, which prohibits so-called racketeering activities (Finklea, 2010, p. 3). RICO has been used against a variety of groups and specifically prohibits activities involving illegal interstate or international conduct including "murder, kidnapping, gambling, arson, robbery, bribery, extortion, dealing in obscene matter, or dealing in a controlled substance or listed chemical" (RICO, 1970). But in the future, given the increasingly international nature of organized crime, looking beyond traditional domestic forms of enforcement may be required.

Money Laundering

Despite the fact that investigating terrorist versus organized criminal organizations has drawn greater interest and public attention in recent years, there is often a fair amount of overlap between the types of crimes that fuel organized crime and terrorism, including money laundering. Money laundering is necessary for all organized criminal organizations to ensure that their illegal funds appear to be legitimately obtained and to avoid detection (Bjelopera & Finklea, 2012, p. 9). Online banking has made money laundering considerably easier than it has been in the past. For example, Mexican drug traffickers make ample use of "digital currency accounts," fake e-businesses, and even online role-playing games that require monetary transactions (Bjelopera & Finklea, 2012, p. 9). The more innovative the methods, the more difficult such transactions can be to track. Prepaid cards can also be used to transport money out of the country (Bjelopera & Finklea, 2012, p. 9).

More traditional methods are still in use, such as shell organizations. Shell companies are technically legal entities but serve no meaningful purpose other than to conceal illicit activities (Bjelopera & Finklea, 2012, p. 9). Not all shell organizations exist solely on paper; sometimes organizations may be legitimate businesses that are nonetheless used as fronts for concealing the bulk of the funds actually propping up the organization. For example, in the television series Breaking Bad, the drug dealer character uses a chain of car washes to conceal the profits from his criminal enterprise ("Money laundering," 2016). Other common techniques used even before the digital era include so-called smurfing — depositing small sums from a large amount of ill-gotten gains to avoid triggering financial reporting thresholds. Using offshore accounts in nations with more lax laws about tracking funds, or where law enforcement agents may be more amenable to bribery or are actively complicit in the scheme, is also popular as a way to conceal the origins of large sums of cash ("Money laundering," 2016).

Drug Trafficking

Ever since the beginnings of modern organized crime, drug trafficking has played a critical role in generating funds. The Italian Mafia was involved during Prohibition in the trafficking of alcohol, which was then illegal in the United States, and has since been active in selling illegal drugs. It is only one of many criminal organizations involved in this field. For many organizations, particularly in Latin America, trafficking in drugs provides the bulk of the organization's revenue (Calderon, 2015). In a number of nations, particularly in Mexico, organized criminal drug trafficking has infiltrated law enforcement, making it even more difficult to control the spread of drugs across national borders. Organizations retain their dominance "through kidnapping, extortion, and establishing protection rackets" (Calderon, 2015). This also highlights how organized crime can be linked to national security issues as well as to efforts to limit the flow of drugs across borders (Calderon, 2015). It can be particularly difficult to work with nations where organized crime plays an active role in bribing or otherwise corrupting law enforcement agencies.

Mexico has become a particularly problematic case for policing drug trafficking because it has emerged as a major site of both drug retailing and drug transit. Its increased wealth and a growing middle-class population have strengthened the presence of illicit traffickers, as more Mexicans are capable of supporting the market domestically while the country also provides a convenient transit route (Calderon, 2015). Organized crime has grown increasingly emboldened and difficult to contain, and drug-related violence has spilled over into middle- and upper-class communities.

References

Bjelopera, J. & Finklea, K. (2012). Organized crime: An evolving challenge for U.S. law enforcement. CRS Report for Congress. Retrieved from: https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41547.pdf

Bradley, T. (2015). Cybercrime is the modern-day mafia. Forbes. Retrieved from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/tonybradley/2015/10/16/cybercrime-is-the-modern-day-mafia/2/#b80e949bb71d

Calderon, F. (2015). Drug trafficking and organized crime: Connected but different. Harvard International Review, 36(4).

Finklea, K. (2010). Organized crime in America: Trends and issues for Congress. CRS Report for Congress. Retrieved from: https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R40525.pdf

Money laundering. (2016). Investopedia. Retrieved from: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/smurf.asp

RICO. (1970). Nolo. Retrieved from: https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/content/rico-act.html

Organized crime. (2016). UN. Retrieved from: https://www.unodc.org/unodc/ar/organized-crime/index.html

Strategy to Combat Organized Crime. (2011). The White House. Retrieved from: https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/criminal-ocgs/legacy/2011/08/31/08-30-11-toc-strategy.pdf