Spotlight 32: Is Slovakia a mafia State?
As former Slovakian PM are being charged with organised crime, we wonder: is Slovakia a mafia State?
Hi and welcome back to the 32nd issue of Spotlight, a fortnightly collection of news, articles, and events about organised crime and corruption curated by Firm UK.
Every two weeks a collective of experts, academics, and volunteers will select a few relevant articles and/or events that will help you to understand our society under the hood.
Slovakia former PM allies have been charged with organised crime accusations, so an article by The Spectator asks the question: is Slovakia a mafia state?
Our opening article this time analyses how bad the ban on opium by the Talibans can turn for the proliferation of crime.
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Taliban opium ban could lead to increase in organised crime and terrorism
The Taliban leadership announced a new ban on opium cultivation in Afghanistan, a repeat of previous attempts under Taliban rule up to 2001. The ban was announced last month in response to international demands for greater drug control in the country. It prohibits the buying, selling and use of a range of illicit drugs as well as alcohol.
In making the announcement, the Taliban leadership asked for the international community’s cooperation to help opium farmers find alternative businesses. This article is a short analysis of what this implies and warns that
“It’s not simply a law enforcement issue, however multilateral. Nor is it purely a humanitarian issue, though that’s a key and critically urgent element”.
Former Slovak PM allies charged with organised crime
Two men who have dominated Slovakia’s politics for the past 15 years — former three-time Prime Minister Róbert Fico and former Interior Minister Róbert Kaliňák — were charged Wednesday with organized crime offenses. If convicted, they could each face up to 12 years in jail. The two men supposedly used classified tax files to wage smear campaigns against political rivals, including former President Andrej Kiska and Boris Kollár, currently Slovakia’s speaker of parliament.
The indictment alleges that Fico was the head of a “criminal organization” that also included former police chief Tibor Gašpár, as well as Slovak oligarch Norbert Bodor.
The 2018 murders of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak, 28, and his fiancée Martina Kušnirová ended Fico’s premiership and brought down his government. The release of thousands of private messages between Kuciak’s alleged killers and police, judges and ruling-coalition politicians galvanized the electorate and swept the anti-corruption Ordinary People movement to power in 2020.
Is Slovakia a mafia state?
The allegations against the former prime minister and his right-hand man are shocking. It's claimed that they used their power to discredit opponents, operating a mafia state that stretched into the police and tax office and in which oligarchy thrived.
Fico is known for a Trump-like persona and open disdain for mainstream media, earning him passionate support in Slovakia’s rural areas. Yet the Twilight investigation suggests that behind Fico’s brusque exterior lurks a manipulative criminal whose misuse of power puts Central Europe’s other so-called ‘rule of law’ miscreants firmly in the shade.
This article questions what can happen next noting how
“While a failure to convict would be catastrophic for Slovakia’s anti-corruption office, success might be even worse. Many of Fico’s supporters will believe his version of events all the more if he is handed a jail sentence”.
Europe’s changing role in expanding cocaine and methamphetamine markets
A new report by the EU drugs agency (EMCDDA) and Europol on the 6th of May offers an in-depth look at the cocaine and methamphetamine markets. The agencies point to increased production activities in Europe and how collaboration between criminal groups worldwide is creating new security threats and expanding the market.
They describe a large and expanding cocaine market and a currently small, but steadily growing, methamphetamine market in the EU.
Taking a threat assessment approach, the agencies present key areas for action at EU and Member State level.
These include: rapidly identifying emerging health and security threats, investing in forensic and toxicological capacity to keep pace with innovation, targeting the illicit drug supply chain and reducing vulnerabilities at external borders.
Daniel Kinahan: who is the Irish ‘mob boss’ with links to boxing, drugs and crime?
This article is a deep dive on Daniel Kinahan, the executive leader of the cartel with his name, from his boxing and sport career to the current race to escape Dubai before being handed over to European and American authorities.
The Kinahan cartel emerged in Dublin in the 1990s and is regarded by the US as one of the world’s largest crime groups, the BBC reported. And since 2018, when he was named in the Dublin high court as the head of a £1bn drugs and weapons smuggling group, the criminal allegations against Kinahan have “mounted”.
Kinahan, 44, has lived in the United Arab Emirates since 2016, but once again he is “a man without a country”, said Jake Donovan on BoxingScene. Following the US sanctions, the UAE joined in “what has now become a global investigation into the life and accused crimes of the controversial Irish businessman”.
The UAE has frozen all identified assets of the KOCG along with issuing sanctions on Kinahan, his father Christopher Vincent “Christy” Kinahan Sr and brother Christy Jr.
Paraguayan anti-mafia prosecutor killed on Colombia honeymoon
A high-profile Paraguayan prosecutor who fought against organised crime in his home country has been shot dead during his honeymoon in Colombia.
Mr Pecci specialised in organised crime, drug-trafficking, money-laundering and terror financing.
In 2020 he worked on a case against former Brazilian footballer Ronaldinho, who was arrested trying to enter Paraguay with a fake Paraguayan passport.
"The cowardly assassination of the prosecutor Marcelo Pecci in Colombia saddens all of the Paraguayan nation,"
Paraguayan President Mario Abdo wrote on Twitter.
Events
[Thursday, 19th May Online 3pm CET] Morocco’s regularization of cannabis production: Anticipated impacts on the illicit cannabis economy. In May 2021, the Moroccan parliament adopted Law 13-21 on the legal use of cannabis for medical, cosmetic and industrial purposes. The government has stressed this process as a strategic opportunity to position itself within a booming global licit cannabis industry and a mechanism to improve farmers’ livelihoods and protect them from drug trafficking networks.
Books, podcasts & more
The Index - New episode on Conflict and Organized Crime Nexus: The Case of Syria
The Index is a podcast based around the Global Organized Crime Index, an online tool that ranks levels of criminality and resilience in 193 countries. From drug trafficking and mafia-style crimes to criminal justice and security.
In this series, we’ll take a deep dive into the Global Organized Crime Index with leading experts and look at some of the biggest organized crime threats facing countries and regions around the world.[Journal Article] Anti-mafia Cross-border: Conceptual and Procedural Asymmetries in the Fight against Italian Mafias in Europe, Anna Sergi, Alice Rizzuti, Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice
(Link for free access for FIRM UK - Spotlight subscribers, not to be shared on social media)
This article explores some of the challenges to fighting against Italian mafias and mafia-type organized crime in Europe, specifically in eight countries—Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Romania, the UK, and Italy. Data have been collected and analysed in two phases: first, from open sources (including media and official reports) and judicial files; secondly, from 40 individual or collective interviews.