We Are Losing The Fight Against Organized Crime And Gangs

So says Jurgen Stock, who served as Interpol’s secretary-general for the past 10 years. “The growth in breadth, scale and professionalism of organized crime is unprecedented.” Driving it is three-fold, the widespread use of technologies such as encrypted apps and cryptocurrencies, the shifting to synthetic drugs that are cheaper to make and more powerful than traditional plant-based ones, and the rise of diversified multinational criminal groups. In other words, they are fueling their endeavors with the increased profits from the sale of cheaper, more easily made drugs, they are communicating on a global scale in ways that cannot be detected and moving their money around without a trace of a money trail. It’s called cyber-crime and it is exploding throughout the world. Think of the market, drug use has increased worldwide by a fifth between 2010 and 2020, and the cost of making them is down 50%. And multinational gangs have become nimbler and more diversified. Instead of sticking to what they know best, like drugs, today they could be in pirated software, wildlife trafficking, migration and refugee movements, you name it. And most important, and frightening, the gangs no longer have borders. For instance, ‘Ndrangheta, the mob originally from Calabria Italy, today has 40,000 full members and 60,000 affiliates in 26 countries. Brazil’s top gang, First Capital Command, has a sprawling global presence considered the “Habsburg Empire of the underground world”. Or take Albanian gangsters, once bottled up in a Communist dictatorship, they can now be found in such far flung places as Ecuador. And don’t think they will be limiting themselves to the underworld, they are quickly becoming a powerful political force trying to shape the futures of the countries they are in. Unfortunately, our law enforcement has always been very territorial, which is to the gangs’ advantage. If we are going to combat the existence and growth of these gang networks, we have to follow their lead, working together across borders and coordinating our efforts. Without this, the gangs are going to keep growing.