Spotlight 3: The nature of organised crime...

...it corrupts everything

Hi! Welcome to the third 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.

The third issue starts with a word pun. Organised crime, as a phenomenon, has the tendency of impacting (thus corrupting) everything it can in society: from politics to economy, from sport to the environment. The environment is what we also refer to as nature. In fact, three suggested articles of this Spotlight’s issue focus on the dangerous relationship between crime and the destruction of the environment. More specifically, two articles investigate the trade of illegal pesticides across Europe while the last one highlights the alleged corruption of Bulgaria’s Deputy Environment Minister in regards to hazardous waste.

Our third issue is also much more: from the inadequate measures of the prohibitionism to how the coronavirus crisis has impacted the EU drug market. Also, what does the MET police do to tackle London’s street gangs? Are its techniques effective or do they need to be reviewed?

Our tips on the best events: we missed Reuter’s Institute’s webinar with Matthew Caruana Galizia, which took place just last week. Luckily, it has been recorded so we share with you the link to watch it now. Lastly, four very interesting events to not be missed all in June.

We hope you enjoy Spotlight.

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Thank you!

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Illegal pesticides: the perfect crime

A detailed article from Investigative Reporting Denmark offering a bird-eye overview of the illegal trade of pesticides.

If you want to make money outside the law, forget guns, drugs, alcohol or cigarettes. Trade in illegal pesticides combines high profits with lower risks.

Some northern European ports like Antwerp, Rotterdam and Hamburg are crucial: there most of the traffic gets through. The article examines, then, the scale of the criminal groups behind the trade and the role of emerging Chinese criminal cartels.

China has since then been claimed to be the main source of counterfeited pesticides (…) Chinese organised crime groups are repeatedly pointed out as the biggest supplier.

According to the investigation, the criminal actors involved in this kind of illegal activities vary from lone-wolves to complex and structured organisations capable of operating in several countries using legitimate transport companies.

Still on illegal pesticides

To remark the importance of the illegal trade of pesticides, we share this press release from Europol covering the results of operation Silver Axe V, a European coordinated initiative started in 2015 to tackle the illegal trade of pesticides.

According to the findings, organised crime groups behind the illegal trade affect nearly 14% of the whole EU pesticide market.

Pesticides are one of the most regulated products in the world: they target harmful organisms in plants but are safe for humans and the environment. Illegal pesticides, however, could pose a risk to human health and the environment, which cannot tell us how much damage it really suffers from such toxic substances.

Bulgaria: Illegal import of hazardous waste

Old but gold: a news story from the end of May by The Sofia Globe telling what’s behind the arrest of Krassimir Zhivkov, Bulgaria’s Deputy Environment Minister.

Zhivkov, as well as the former head of the regional inspectorate of environment and waters in Pleven and four other people are being investigated in connection with crimes related to the import of hazardous waste to Bulgaria, mainly from Italy.

The Prosecutor-General’s office suspects that Zhivkov had allegedly been pressuring subordinates to issue permits for the import of hazardous waste to companies which don’t meet the legal requirements. As a consequence, it has been suspected that those permits were being refused to companies that would, instead, meet the legal requirements.

The Sofia Globe’s article reveals a common pattern usually affecting the illegal trade of hazardous waste: abuse of power, corruption and the forgery or counterfeit of the legal papers accompanying the waste disposal process.

The scheme involved falsifying processing of waste by sending it to companies whose activities were fictitious, thus saving the fees and transport costs of sending the hazardous waste to where there was capacity to process it without endangering the environment.

Prohibitionism didn't work in the Garden of Eden. Neither did in South Africa

An insightful piece by Jason Burke for The Guardian shows a clear mechanism of how organised crime exploits the gaps in the market to provide illicit goods.

On one hand, prohibiting alcohol and cigarettes, justified under the lockdown rules in South Africa, might have contributed to bringing down rates of violence. On the other, however, it might have likely boosted illicit trade.

Prohibitions created a booming illicit trade, providing huge opportunities for organised criminals. Police have described an increase in smuggling of contraband into South Africa from its neighbours and a spate of burglaries of stores stocking alcohol.

EU Drug Markets: Impact of COVID-19

The EU drugs agency (EMCDDA) and Europol join forces with the publication of a new report about the impact of the pandemic crisis on different drugs.

Higher prices, local shortage and reduced purity for some drugs are paired with violence among suppliers and distributors as well.

This report provides valuable insights into the short-term impact of the pandemic on the EU drug market and will help us prepare for longer-term repercussions.

Organised crime groups remain active and resilient by adapting logistic models and trafficking routes, even during the pandemic, as the supply chain has not been completely interrupted.

London street gangs and the MET: a generational battle

Through this piece, The Observer’s Mark Townsend walks you among the streets of West Croydon where the MET deployed its new “violence suppression units” (VSUs) with the purpose of ensuring serious crime never returned to pre-lockdown levels.

West Croydon has experienced high levels of street violence with much of the borough’s crime shoehorned into the surrounding streets and shopping areas.

Tensions between gangs periodically flare on London Road. A video emerged last year showing youngsters fighting on the street in broad daylight with metal pipes as weapons. Yet the complexities of gangland territory dictate that most have learned to coexist. “They even help each other, work with each other and sometimes hang out together”

The article also covers how the MET revamped some traditional techniques of street policing: the officers are required to know every detail of a target area and the backstory of each shopkeeper.

During a recent visit to a Croydon MB he talked to its homeless, often the eyes and ears of the street. “I spoke to all the vagrants, got their life story, and tested the team if they also knew.”

The Mafia took over the medical industry: now Long-Shot Payout From a Medical Industry Takeover

The article, featuring comments from Professor Federico Varese associate of Firm UK, drawing on examples from 100 or 150 years ago all the way to today’s conditions, reflects on how Mafia families in Italy have taken advantage of medical emergencies through hijacking of funds and support to populations.

"Mafia members are also people and might genuinely feel for the plights of their communities. But they are special people and generally, they have ulterior motives. As Giovanni Falcone, the late Italian judge and prosecutor in Palermo murdered in 1992 once said: "Everything is a message, everything is full of meaning in the world of Cosa Nostra, no detail is too small to be overlooked."

Holding power to account a webinar with Matthew Caruana Galizia (WATCH VIDEO)

If you missed this by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford last week, you can watch it now. The online event saw Matthew Caruana Galizia, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist from Malta, discussing his work on the Panama Papers which he worked on alongside his late mother, Daphne Caruana Galizia.

The international team behind the investigation uncovered the hidden infrastructure and global scale of offshore tax havens.

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Events and webinars

The following events for a deeper understanding of the topics of this issue of Spotlight:

1. [Mon 15th June 20 - 2 pm CEST] Faces of Assassination Online launch
   The launch of a book (curated by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime) that collects 50 profiles of those who have been assassinated by criminal groups since the start of the millennium. It is a compilation of women and men who were murdered because they confronted, weakened or threatened criminal groups.

2. [Wed 17th June 20 - 9 am Pacific Time] Poppies, Ports, and Harm Reduction: Changing Dynamics in Drug Markets
   Widely reported cases of curfew enforcement in Brazil's favelas and distribution of 'care packages' in Mexico during COVID-19 have shed a light on criminal governance.

   While it is still early to determine the long-term effects of COVID-19 on illicit markets, this webinar brings together experts to discuss how the pandemic has affected opium poppy cultivation in Mexico, seaports for drug trafficking, and harm reduction strategies in particular in the context of the opioid crisis in the United States.

3. [Tue 23rd Jun 20 9 am Eastern Time (US and Canada)] Virtual Panel: Illegal wildlife markets, zoonotic disease transfer and corruption
   In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is greater international willingness to address illegal wildlife markets.
   This online event will examine the role that corruption has played in allowing these markets to flourish and new approaches that practitioners must consider to protect natural resources, public health and assure good governance.

4. [Thu 25th June 20 - 11 am BST] Annual Conference Virtual Seminar Series: Serious Organised Crime
   Instead of holding a one-day annual conference in London, the Centre for Science and Policy of the University of Cambridge this year will be delivering a series of virtual seminars in May and June on topics that CSaP and our network have worked on over the past year.

   Invited experts will offer insights into some of the latest research that has the potential to inform decisions taken by policymakers.
   
   

If you have any questions or feedback please write to us!