Spotlight 38: Research on organised crime never stops
Two different abstracts by our associates Anna Sergi and Emilia Ziosi
Good morning and welcome back to the 38th issue of Spotlight, a fortnightly collection of news, articles, events and much more about organised crime and corruption around the world curated by Firm UK.
This issue is particularly important for us as we publish an abstract from the first paper by our Associate Emilia Ziosi (visiting Scholar at the Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, CLACS, at the School of Advanced Study, University of London,) published in the Journal of Illicit Development and Economies with the title “Enablers of Cocaine Trafficking: Evidence of the State-Crime Nexus from Contemporary Honduras”.
We also publish an abstract by our Associate, Professor of Criminology Anna Sergi - “Mafia Borderland: Narratives, Traits, and Expectations of Italian-American Mafias in Ontario and the Niagara Region”.
With this, we come to an even deeper awareness that research on corruption and organised crime can never stop.
Also on this issue, two events for next week.
We hope you enjoy Spotlight and, if you like it, please share it with your network and invite them to subscribe.
Thank you!
ARTICLES AND NEWS WORTH READING
Was a Super Cartel Controlling Europe's Drug Trade?
Operation Desert Light, coordinated by Europol, saw dozens of suspects arrested in the United Arab Emirates, France, Spain, and Belgium between November 8 and 19. The arrest of Edin Gačanin, alias "Tito," in Dubai was seen as the most important of the entire operation.
Tito is said to be the head of a drug trafficking network known as the Tito and Dino clan. Gačanin was born in Bosnia and raised in the Netherlands. He ran a profitable drug trafficking business between Latin America and the Balkans despite being based in Dubai, according to Balkan Insight.
In 2019, the Tito and Dino clan was named as part of a "super cartel," run by Gačanin alongside Irish drug kingpin, Daniel Kinahan, Italian mafia boss Raffaele Imperiale, and Dutch-Moroccan trafficker, Ridouan Taghi, Bosnian newspaper El Zurnal revealed, citing documents from the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
Notwithstanding the appeal of the Super Cartel, according to this article, it was likely not a formal alliance but a successful example of "crowdsourcing," with different criminal actors pooling their money to buy cocaine cheaper in bulk.
Cracking apps: are crimefighters going too far to bring down cartels?
The cracking of an encrypted communication app known as Sky ECC, said to be the “best-in-class security”, and the deliverance into the hands of FBI agents and police officers in Europe of 1bn messages sent among 120,000 users, has been behind the latest Operation Desert Light which between 8-19 November and with the coordination of Europol has brought to arrests all over Europe and beyond in what is commonly referred to a Super Cartel running cocaine shipments into Europe.
“It was as if we were sitting at the table with the criminals,” the executive director of Europol, Catherine De Bolle, said in a recent interview.
This article takes a critical and questioning stance on the use of technology to decrypt such apps by law enforcement, such as SKY ECC, EncroChat and AnOm, specifically looking at the legal challenges such data poses. With legal questions over the provenance of the communications intercepted in both Sky ECC and EncroChat, there will be a concern at Europol HQ and elsewhere about whether the treasure unearthed proves to be fool’s gold – and what rights have been strolled over in the gathering of it.
Curtis Warren was freed after 14 years and 'back in Liverpool'
Curtis Warren has been freed from prison after 14 years and is understood to be back in Liverpool.
He was once considered 'Target One' by Interpol and was kept in the maximum security HMP Whitemoor, in Cambridgeshire. He is widely known as Liverpool’s most infamous organised figure which is why he is subject to a strict raft of restrictions including a ban from instant messaging apps WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, having more than Ј1,000 in cash, giving police a day's notice if he wants to use a friend's car and a ban on travel outside of England and Wales without giving seven days notice to the police.
The article summarises Warren’s ‘career’ in organised crime especially the forging of direct links with major cocaine and heroin suppliers from Colombia to Turkey, by cutting out the middlemen.
Darknet markets
This article shows how researchers found thousands of vendors selling stolen data products on 30 darknet markets. These vendors had more than US$140 million in revenue over an eight-month period. The three largest markets – Apollon, WhiteHouse and Agartha – contained 58% of all vendors.
Darknet markets provide a platform for vendors to connect with potential buyers to facilitate transactions. As long as data is stolen, there are likely to be marketplaces for the stolen information, but efforts to thwart efforts are difficult to disrupt.
Money Laundering from Fentanyl and Synthetic Opioids
This report by FAFT-GAFI looks at how proceeds are laundered from synthetic opioid trafficking. Organised crime groups use a range of methods including bulk cash smuggling, cash couriers, trade-based money laundering and virtual assets (crypto), as well as shell companies and the services of professional money launderers.
The report includes relevant risk indicators that will help identify the potential trafficking of illicit synthetic opioids.
BEYOND THE NEWS
Guide to Investigating Organised Crime in the Golden Triangle
There are three major myths about the Golden Triangle, where the borders of Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos intersect. The first concerns the name itself, which suggests that it has something to do with gold — perhaps because it has been used as payment for the drugs frequently exported from the area. The second is that Southeast Asia’s opium trade has deep historical roots and that poppies have been grown there for centuries. The third is that there is a battle going on between “bad guys” (traffickers and their criminal associates) and “good guys” (international and local law enforcement agencies doing their best to stop the trade and arrest the criminals who are behind it). On the ground, however, these distinctions aren’t clear-cut.
This guide to investigating organised crime in the Golden Triangle covers an array of topics:
Chapter 1 — Narcotics (Drug Traffickers);
Chapter 2 — Narcotics (Corrupt Officials);
Chapter 3 — Money Laundering;
Chapter 4 — Human Trafficking;
Chapter 5 — Wildlife Trafficking;
Chapter 6 — Other Criminal Activity.
Open access academic articles
By Firm UK Associate Professor Anna Sergi
Abstract
This paper will investigate narratives, traits, and expectations of Italian-American mafias in North America. The specific case study is the area of Niagara, at the border between New York State, USA and Ontario, Canada. In this context, the article will mainly explore narratives and traits of so-called “mafia” families in the city of Hamilton, and their apparent connections with other “mafia” groups on the other side of the borderland, in Buffalo and Toronto.
Through qualitative design adapted from grounded theory methodology with mixed data, including news stories, investigative files and interviews, this article shows how mafias in the borderland of Niagara are conceptualised as mixed groups, employing different identity “flags”. Mafias appear isomorphic since they imitate each other's structures and (try to) obey traditional mafia rules, to adapt and survive. In line with GT methodology, this paper finally explores an emerging theoretical category, that of the mafia borderland. As a space and identity, mafia borderland helps to sketch traits and expectations of mafia groups in border areas.
Enablers of Cocaine Trafficking: Evidence of the State-Crime Nexus from Contemporary Honduras
Journal of Illicit Economies and Development
By Firm UK Associate Emilia Ziosi
Abstract
Honduras has been Central America’s focal point for drug trafficking towards the United States for years as the region’s primary transit country. Recent court cases held in the United States have revealed the symbiotic relationship between state actors, business elites and drug trafficking organisations in contemporary Honduras, uncovering the blurred boundaries between the licit and illicit, the upper and underworld in the country. In this article, a drug-trafficking family – ‘Los Cachiros’ transportista (transport) group – is analysed as a case study to explore state actors’ involvement in cocaine trafficking.
Drawing on publicly available official judicial documents, this article explores the interpenetrations between formal and informal institutions in the country, arguing that state actors’ involvement in the drug trade in Honduras goes far beyond protection, and has evolved into a robust network of public, and private and criminal actors that have been able to capture the state’s basic sovereign functions to protect and promote their interests. In doing so, this article takes forward the state-crime nexus literature. Building on Hall’s (2018) networked approach in the study of illicit economies, this article proposes a conceptual framework to re-theorise the state-crime nexus as a transnationally networked set of relations, which considers the role of external states as actors of power within a country’s state-crime nexus. Looking at the unique relationship between Honduras and the United States, I argue that the concept is useful to understand the role of the United States as a transnational actor of power within the Honduran state-crime nexus.
Have a look at the whole open access issue published in JIED Why the Drug War Endures: Local and Transnational Linkages in the North and Central America Drug Trades.
EVENTS
[Tuesday, 13th December 2022]
Portholes Exploring the maritime Balkan routes
The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized crime;
[Monday, 12th December 2022]
The downsides of the digital revolution: Confronting Africa’s evolving cyber threats
The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized crime.