Wired magazine has a very interesting feature on international organized crime. Here's a reduced-size version of their interactive graphic, showing the areas covered. (Of course, this copy isn't interactive!)
They point out:
Modern organized crime has, for the most part, done away with the kind of hierarchical structures the Mafia once favored - capos, dons, lieutenants, and so forth - and has embraced local, just-in-time, ad hoc networking to solve problems or exploit opportunities. Transnational organized crime - that is, cooperative activity between criminal groups in various nations - is estimated to be a $2 trillion industry, larger than the economy of Spain.
There's more at the link. I highly recommend clicking on the various links in their interactive graphic. It contains some fascinating information, including details of which areas of crime are most lucrative for those engaged in them.
Peter
At least somebody is organizing it...
ReplyDeleteThere's of course many more organized crime organizations, I'm surprised hell's angels didn't make the cut for example.
ReplyDeleteI noticed two things. One, there doesn't seem to be any migrant smuggling from South and Central America into the U.S. Two, the supposed firearm smuggling from the U.S. into Mexico has been proven to be a lot smaller than our press and the Mexican government suggests.
ReplyDeleteBrass