The study of organized crime United States of America vs. Afghanistan - Essay Example

The Study of Organized Crime United s of America vs. Afghanistan Alan T. Griffo Submitted on 09/12/2008 Contents Definition of Organized Crime ------------- 4 History and Historiography of Organized Crime in USA----- 5 Organized Crime in United States of America --------------- 7 Lacunae in Criminal Justice System of USA ---------------- 10 Organized Crime in Afghanistan -------------------- 11 The Criminal Justice System in Afghanistan ------------- 13 Organized crime in Middle East ----------------- 13 Conclusion ----------------- 14 3 Organized Crime USA vs. Afghanistan Abstract: Towards the end of 2005, the Convention Against Corruption entered into force and its' goal inter alia is to prevent organized crime. The World Bank estimated in 2005 that over $1 trillion is paid in bribes each year to corrupt government officials. The impact is significant. Initially, corruption facilitates drug trafficking, organized crime, money laundering and illicit international money transfers, which can be used to support mechanisms for international terrorists. But the toll on an impoverished nation is even more devastating and real. Against that backdrop, this paper will attempt to define organized crime in the United States, explore its' genesis and discuss the impact of organized crime in the United States. Next this paper will discuss the origins of organized crime in Afghanistan and the Middle East, define the parameters and establish the nexus of organized crime between the United States and the Middle East. 4 Organized Crime USA vs. Afghanistan Definition of Organized Crime: The American Heritage Dictionary defines organized crime. "1. Widespread criminal activities, such as prostitution, interstate theft, or illegal gambling, that occur within centrally controlled formal structure. 2. The people and the groups involved in such criminal activities." (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition, Boston/New York/London 1992) Block says that "organized crime is both a social system and a social world. The system is composed of relationships binding professional criminals, politicians, law enforcers, and various entrepreneurs". Kelly (1994) states "Organized crime" is more than a specific type of "crime," much like a "violent crime" is a subset of all crimes. For example, one can talk about a violent crime and describe a particular incident to others; if the incident's description fits the legal definition of the crime and includes violent acts as a part of its commission, then we understand the incident to be a violent crime. But one cannot talk about "an organized crime" in the same manner, because society and the law does not conceive of "an organized crime" as a similar subset of all crimes; rather, American law has labeled a crime fitting into the category "organized crime" by virtue of other factors, such as inter alia, whether the person committing the crime is affiliated with a criminal enterprise and the description of the circumstances surrounding the crime. Kelly, R (1994). Handbook of Organized Crime In the United States. Philadelphia, PA.: Greenwood Press. 5 Organized Crime USA vs. Afghanistan History and Historiography of Organized Crime in USA: Murry Kempton criticized people, whom he called good citizens, for always insisting that [organized] crime is 'un-American' activity, as the Mafia was also taken as un-American concept. (The New York Reviews of Books; 9 April 1992). 'The orthodox model states that organized crime's crucial history is the rise of Italian American organized crime.'. This paper also tries to establish that organized crime, notwithstanding the fact of multicultural facets of it, has indigenous roots too. Alan A. Block maintains that fact finding reports about the organized crime in USA have been very misleading. They actually do not help us to establish the substantial historiography of the organized crime in the country. He refers to the Civil Racketeers Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act, pressed by the US attorney in New York southern district to curb La Cosa Nostra's control over 'one of the largest labor unions in the nation'. Assistant Us attorney Randy M. Mastro stated, "the Government has established the existence of La Cosa Nostra a/k/a the Mafia----- through the testimony of Anglo Leonardo(former under boss of the Cleveland organized crime family). Lenardo established (1) it operates throughout the United States (2) it has commission made up of the bosses of New York's five La Cosa Nostra families and 'Various times representative of other La Cosa Nostra Families throughout the United States (3) The commission is a "national ruling council" of Mafia group and (4) the commission's function included regulating, facilitating, and controlling relationship among Mafia groups. Kelly, R (1994). Handbook of Organized Crime In the United States. Philadelphia, PA.: Greenwood Press Block. Allen. A (1994) Organized Crime in USA, Handbook of Organized Crime in the United States. Ed. Kelley, R. Philadelphia, PA: Greenwood Press. 6 Organized Crime USA vs. Afghanistan Alan A. Block is of the view that such facts established on the witnessness of the peer of the culprits are not very helpful to reach a definition of the organized crime. It is also noted that no substantial serious work was conducted on the organized crime in United States of America, and most of the research work relied on the descriptions of the booked culprits; provided by the police. The term 'Organized Crime' was first incepted in Chicago in 1919 since then the definition of the term has undergone many changes. The Chicago Crime Commission; a civic organization, created in 1919, used the term organized crime for the first time. The commission was established by businessmen, bankers and lawyers to bring changes in criminal justice system to deal with the problems related to organized crime. Organized crime was referred to 'orderly fashion' in which estimated 10,000 'criminal class' of professional criminals in could allegedly 'pursue crime as business. {Chamberlin, (1919, 1920, 1921) Holden (1920) and Sims (1920)}. The discussion in the commission focused on the conditions which were congenial for criminals "to gain income from crime", and main focus was on property crimes, which had effective 'immunity from the law.' The commission laid responsibility on the city authorities for its incompetency, inefficiency and corruption and the commission also blamed the public for its indifference and even for their sympathies for the criminals. There was a significant change in the concept of organized crime during the depression era. During those days the term began to be used outside Chicago. In the mid-1930s, the term was used in narrow sense of 'racketeering'. (Allsop, 1968; p, 24); Hostetler and Beeslay (1929) p, 1; Smith (1975) p, 67 and The New York Times, 20 November 1927, III, p, 2 The term "protection racket" is found in The New York Times Index in early 1912. Article published in the paper referred this term to the 'extortion of money from brothels by police officials'. (The New York Times, 12 December 1912 P-1). Later, bootlagging and gambling also came under "racketeering" (Daniell 1930) 4 4 Lampe, Klaus, Von. Not a Process of Enlightenment: The Conceptual History of Organized Crime in Germany and the United States of America, Forum on Crime and Society, Vol.1 No.2 December 2001(United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) 7 Organized Crime USA vs. Afghanistan Organized Crime in United States of America: Organized crime in USA became different in early twenty- first century than the period when the Mafia families held a sway on the social milieu of the United States of America. Motorcycle gangs and street gangs are the prevailing activities of the organized crime. FBI's major concern is global cooperation of the organized crime groups. It gives an international perspective to the organized crime. Russian Mafia, Chinese Triads, Japanese Yakuza, Mexican Mafia, African and Caribbean groups are active in USA, then persisting cooperation of Sicilian and Italian organized crime are major threats for the society. Drug trafficking is a booming illegal business along with the illegal trade of weapons, diamonds, and the illegal trade of natural resources such as oil from Russia is also smuggled, causing a great jolt to the American economy. It is observed that in 2000s $ 100 billion were earned by drug trafficking. Hacking has been a cherished organized crime activity. A nation or business can be extorted with computer viruses. (See chapter 6, White-Collar Crime). Counterfeiting, making fake passports are now possible by computer technology. FBI, to deal with organized crime and its worldwide connections, has established its Organized Crime Section. "Responsibilities are subdivided into three units: the La Cosa Nostra/Italian Organized Crime/Labor Racketeering Unit; the Eurasian Organized Crime Unit; and the Asian/African Criminal Enterprise Unit. Through these units the FBI attempts to disrupt and shut down international and U.S. organized crime." 5 Drug Trafficking and other Organized Crimes: Drug trafficking and money laundering are two of the lucrative business of the racketeers of organized crime in USA. It is also noted that pornography, prostitution and gambling are major source of money making. In USA and world over the drug trafficking was the largest illegal organized crime in 2002. The common trafficked drugs were cannabis (marijuana and hashish), cocaine, and heroine. 8 Organized Crime USA vs. Afghanistan "The term 'trafficking' means dealing, smuggling, buying with the intent to sell, and selling a substance." The amount of money that is involved in drug trafficking is called dirty money and needs laundering. Money laundering is performed by specialists members of the organized crime. The dirty money is deposited in 'legitimate financial institutions'; hiding the source of money. Money laundering initiates "co-mingling"; this is mixing of legal and illegal funds together. It makes difficult for authorities to track the dirty money. Once that money is cleaned then it is used in legally run business like garbage disposal, meat, restaurants, garments manufacturing, bars, and in real estate. Pornography is also a very thriving illegal business, earning thousands of dollars.6 In 1999, the scam of money laundering was surfaced in The Bank of New York by the brilliant investigating reporting of Timothy O' Brien and Raymoned Bonner; the reporter of the The New York Times. The investigation was launched against the bank for allegedly laundering 'between $4.2 billion' (The Times) whereas, other sources claimed that it was as much as $10 billion. The bank was alleged to launder for various people; the members of new Russia Mafia and for some very top 'echelon' of Russian politicians. 'This was a money laundering and flight capital.mixed and mingled with illegal diverted loans from the International Monetary Fund.'7 Organized crime, labeled by scholars as transnational crime, is posing a threat to the securities of states. Even the head of the states have been victim to the mafia of drug trafficking. The governments across the globe are seriously pondering to curb this threat. 1991, President Clinton asked the world community to form coalition to combat this new wave of terrorism. But unfortunately, so far, no substantial steps have been taken to fight this threat.8. Although the precise figures involved are notoriously difficult to calculate, there is little doubt that transnational organized crime would, by any standard, qualify as a major "growth industry" in the late twentieth century. Second, the 9 Organized Crime USA vs. Afghanistan. increasingly open nature of the global economy and the associated processes of "economic globalization" have resulted in significant changes to what Peter Andreas calls the "business of transnational crime." Financial and trade liberalization, partial industry deregulation, technological improvements in communications, transportation, and distribution, and, more generally, the easing of restrictions on cross-border transactions of all kinds have combined to create new "structures of opportunity" for those involved in criminalized markets (Taylor; see Chapter 9). Third, the fact that transnational criminal groups now operate within, and benefit from, a much more open economic environment poses new and distinctive challenges for international organizations and states wishing to take collective action to combat organized crime. Fourth, the study of civil wars and armed conflict in the 1990s has shown that the pursuit of criminal agendas by warring parties is often difficult to distinguish from other objectives, supposedly of a more "political" nature, that are commonly assumed to be driving conflict. 5 Organized Crime - Organized Crime Offenses 6 Organized Crime - Organized Crime Offenses 7 Chambliss, W (2004). All Is Clouded By Desire: Global Banking, Money Laundering, and International Organized Crime. Chicago, Ill.: Praegar.p-3 8 Berdal, Mats (2002). Transnational Organized Crime and International Security: Business as Usual Boulder, CO.: Lynne Rienner. 10 Organized Crime USA vs. Afghanistan Lacunae in Criminal Justice System of USA: Eric E. Sterling presented his comments on March 23, 2000 to the Subcommittee on Treasury, Postal Service and General Government of the Committee on Appropriations, U.S. House of Representatives. In his comments he pointed out the lacunae in the Criminal Justice System of USA in dealing with organized crime in general and drug trafficking in particular. Sterling lamented that Chairman Kolbe and Mr. Hoyer, the members of the subcommittee, the National Drug Control Strategy, attempted to 'sweep monumental failure under a rug'. He further commented that General McCaffrey insistence that 'we are winning' the fight against drug abuse is misleading. The facts refuted the claims of McCaffrey. The drug abuse among junior high kids had tripled. "Drug prices are at historic lows, drug purity is as high as ever, and we are still not treating most of the millions of addicts desperate for help."9 By providing the facts Sterling stated that deaths from drug abuse had doubled since 1979, 'from 7,101 in 1979 to 15,973 in 1997' In his presentation by providing the alarming figures of usage of drugs he claimed that all forms of drugs were selling cheap in the streets and no influential strategy was introduced to minimize the use of drugs in American society. The above statement of Eric E. Sterling is sufficed to throw light on the lacunae of the Criminal Justice System of USA. Some of the scholars are of the view that the organized crime, particularly drug trafficking, is protected by the different organs of the state and this problem has political dimensions also. This phenomenon has a similarity with the problem of organized crime in Afghanistan. 9 Statement of Eric E. Sterling to the Subcommittee on Treasury, Postal Service and General Government of the Committee on Appropriations, U.S. House of Representatives March 23, 2000. < http://www.cjpf.org/drug/2000strategy_print.html> 11 Organized Crime USA vs. Afghanistan Organized Crime in Afghanistan: Afghanistan is a country in continuous war since 1979 and after the evacuation of the Red Army she has been the victim of civil war for the last three decades. The infrastructure collapsed and the country virtually became the hostage in the hands of the war lords. From centuries Afghanistan has been the center of the transnational route of trade and later it attracted the drug traffickers around the world and became an important terminal of drug trafficking for all over the world. Moreover, she is a fertile land for the poppy crop and in 1980s during the occupation of the Soviet Union a new drug Heroin was introduced which is an extract of opium, the drug trafficking of heroin, a thriving illicit business, attracted many drug barons to concentrate their activities in Afghanistan. The economy of Afghanistan remained intertwined with illicit trade. The daunting challenge for Afghanistan is to form a legitimate state on the expansion of the illicit economy. . "Ending war in Afghanistan might transform the criminalized war economy into an even faster- expanding criminalized peace economy. Whoever rules Afghanistan, the incentives for misgovernment are nearly irresistible." (Rubin, 2000, P, 1799) In recent years the leading participants in the process of reconstruction and democratization of the country pointed out the threats; posed by the organized crime in Afghanistan, in the state formation of Afghanistan. As the former minister of interior Ahmad Ali Jalali clamored that his country was turning into a "narco-state." The Secretary General of the United Nations had expressed the same concerns, he feared that the organized crime, related to drug trafficking, would the major hindrance to prevail peace in the country and the organized crime would daunt all the efforts of the international community to form a viable state of Afghanistan. History and Historiography of Organized Crime in Afghanistan: Prior to the invasion of the Soviet Union the feeble state economy of Afghanistan mainly relied on external resources and most of the money was spent on basic infrastructure of the country; construction of roads, modern police force and army. (See Rubin, 2002, pp, 62-105). The ruler communities remained isolated, sustaining on agriculture production. In mid 1970s 12 Organized Crime USA vs. Afghanistan when poppy cultivation was banned in Iran, the half of Afghanistan started cultivating poppy. (Goodhand, 2005, p, 197) During the major conflicts in 1979 to 1992 the illicit economic activities grew at large scale. The food production of rural Afghanistan dwindled to two third. (Rubin, 2002, p, 1792) The profits; extracted from the money spent by CIA was mostly invested in illicit trades. As Goodhand (2000, p.198) notes, in the mid-1980s "there was an arms pipeline going in, and drug pipeline coming out of Afghanistan." Seven major groups of Mujahideen, by 1989, were producing 800 metric tones of opium of the total production. The Karzi government is reluctant to admit that the feeble state control is responsible for the booming illicit business of drugs and all the responsibility is laid on war lords. The new trends in drug trafficking has been observed in the country. The involvement of organized crime the opium industry is moving towards vertical integration. It is observed that powerful political persons have also been involved in drug trafficking. The brother of the president of Afghanistan was reported to be the baron of drug traffickers. Report of the Secretary General, The Situation in Afghanistan and its implication for peace and security, 12 August 2005, A60/224-S/2005. Goodhand, Jonathan (2005) Frontiers and War; "The Opium Economy in Afghanistan", Journal of Agrarian change, Vol. 5 No-2(April) Shaw, Mark, Drug Trafficking and Development of Organized Crime in Post- Taliban Afghanistan. < http://siteresources.worldbank.org/SOUTHASIAEXT/Resources/Publications/448813-1164651372704/UNDC_Ch7.pdf> 13 Organized Crime USA vs. Afghanistan The Criminal Justice System in Afghanistan: The farmers in some areas may have to pay the local police for poppy cultivation. The threat of poppy eradication has generated the system of protection payment. The district police officer is directly paid by the drug traffickers, then district police officer pays the share to the provincial police officer, who in his turn bribes the politically powerful individual and the pyramid of protection payment is formed. In short Afghanistan is paradise for the drug traffickers and there is mushroom growth of the organized crime. Organized crime in Middle East: Aftab Ansari, the Indian criminal who is Dubai-based, is said to use the ransom money, he earned from kidnapping, to fund the 9/11 terrorist attack on twin towers. Dawood Ibrahim, who also lives in Dubai, is a terrorist and criminal. In Middle East a different trends in criminal activities have been observed which is pure transnational in nature. The recent unearthed network of Pakistani Scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan for nuclear smuggling betrays troubling trends in organized crime internationally. The nuclear smuggling from Pakistan to North Korea, Iran and Libya would not have been possible without assistance of criminal network. These channels unearth the inabilities of the law enforcing agencies and it is feared that such groups could lead to more nuclear transfer in future. "Khan's middleman was a Dubai-based Sri Lankan businessman, Buhary Ayed Abu Tahir. He arranged for a Malaysian company to manufacture nuclear components for shipping to Libya, and for Libyan technicians to be trained in the use of machines that were part of the nuclear program. Tahir also assisted Khan in the transfer of centrifuge units from Pakistan to Iran."13. The organized crime in the Middle East and South Asia are connected to terrorist groups funded by the drug trade. In South Asia the criminal organizations have become ideological or religious groups Lal, Rollie, Terrorists and organized crime join forces, Herald Tribune, Published: TUESDAY, MAY 24, 2005 < http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/05/23/opinion/edlal.php> 14 Organized Crime USA vs. Afghanistan Conclusion: The study tried to explore the history of organized crime in USA and Afghanistan. It also tried to reach on some substantial definition of organized crime, though there is no unanimous definition of this crime. While studying two different societies, one where the state is dominant and has all means to curb organized crime is deplorably failed to stop drug abuse in the society, and the other almost failed state Afghanistan is a paradise for the organized crime, which even threatens the peace efforts of the international community. But one thing is common between the two states that the powerful organs of the sates are involved in the illicit trade and as noted the renowned bank of USA The Bank of New York was allegedly involved in money laundering to facilitate the Russian Mafia. The study also focused on the organized crime in the Middle East and it was noted that the middle east based terrorist groups are the real threat for the USA in particular and the for the world in general. The Middle East organized crime has changed the trends and the unearthing of criminal network of Abdul Qadeer Khan brought another threat of nuclear smuggling. But unfortunately, no solid effort by the world community has been witnessed to curb the organized crime in the Middle East. Bibliography Berdal Mats (2002). Transnational Organized Crime and International Security: Business as Usual Boulder, CO.: Lynne Rienner Chambliss, W (2004). All Is Clouded By Desire: Global Banking, Money Laundering, and International Organized Crime. Chicago, Ill.: Praegar. Goodhand, Jonathan (2005) Frontiers and War; "The Opium Economy in Afghanistan", Journal of Agrarian change, Vol. 5 No-2(April) Kelly, R (1994). Handbook of Organized Crime In the United States. Philadelphia, PA.: Greenwood Press. Lampe, Klaus, Von. Not a Process of Enlightenment: The Conceptual History of Organized Crime in Germany and the United States of America, Forum on Crime and Society, Vol.1 No.2 December 2001(United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) Rubin, Barnet (2004) "Road to Ruin, Afghanistan's Booming Opium Industry." Center for America Progress and Center on International Cooperation, New York University (October) Shaw, Mark, Drug Trafficking and Development of Organized Crime in Post- Taliban Afghanistan. Zaitseva , L (2007).Organized Crime, Terrorism and Nuclear Trafficking. Strategic Insights. VI, 1-18. Read More