Organized Crime: Definition, Types, and Human Trafficking
Definition of Organized Crime
Organized crime is characterized by three defining features:
- The guidance to the commission of serious crimes. This refers not to a simple band of pickpockets, but to groups that employ serious criminal means, such as violence, intimidation, or corruption in a broad sense.
- Adoption of a complex structure. These groups have intricate organizational structures.
- Pursuit of financial gain or power. While some definitions in legal doctrine limit organized crime to profit-seeking, this is a narrow concept. It excludes criminal organizations that pursue other goals, such as political or religious aims. Including these allows for the categorization of terrorist organizations as organized crime. Both goals are not mutually exclusive; the concentration of significant economic power in an organization often translates to political power, and political power invariably involves economic power.
Examples:
- Camorra, ‘Ndrangheta, Sacra Corona Unita: Their activities include drug trafficking, extortion, cigarette smuggling, lotteries, illegal gambling, and corruption to obtain public works contracts.
- Sicilian Cosa Nostra (Mafia): Linked to gangsterism in the U.S., the Mafia expanded its interests into construction after World War II, alongside drug trafficking and money laundering.
- Russian Mafia: Their main activities involve trafficking in raw materials, arms, and nuclear materials, as well as fraud, prostitution, drug trafficking, money laundering, black market operations, and various counterfeiting activities.
- Yakuza (Japan): Their primary activities include prostitution, trafficking Colombian cocaine to Japan, gambling, entertainment businesses, real estate investment, extortion of large firms, arms trafficking, pornography, money laundering, and trafficking of designer drugs.
- Chinese Triads: Involved in various criminal activities.
- African Connection: Nigerian syndicates traffic drugs between Asia and Africa, using forged documents such as passports from Britain, France, and Holland. Brazil is a preferred country for West Africans to send cocaine to Africa.
Organized Crime and Human Smuggling
The number of cases of human smuggling and illegal immigration that come to the attention of authorities is relatively low. The phenomenon of “boats” (small vessels used for illegal immigration) up until 2006 was distributed equally between two main Spanish destination areas: the Canary Islands and the Andalusian coast. Recently, efforts have been made to curb this phenomenon through the SIVE (Integrated External Surveillance System).
The heads of the vessels are often not detected. However, the occupants are arrested. The administrative penalty under the Immigration Act for those attempting to enter Spain illegally is a return to their country of origin within a period not exceeding 72 hours. This penalty is applied except in cases where:
- The foreigner’s country of origin is unknown.
- The provenance of the boat is unknown.
- Travel may pose a risk to the person concerned.
- The alien is an asylum applicant.
- The short legal period established to conduct the return procedure prevents its execution.
The non-detection of those responsible for the vessels is often due to the fact that police investigations typically take longer than the 72 hours provided for the return of all occupants of the intercepted boat. Prioritizing research to determine the responsibility of the boat’s operator and suspected members of a criminal organization is crucial.