Organized crime Books

Book SynopsisJust who is Radovan Krejcir? Known as "Baas John" to his underlings, he arrived in South Africa in 2007 under a false passport. He was a fugitive, a powerful Czech multimillionaire, who escaped from prison on fraud charges and fled to the good life in the Seychelles. But a bid by the Czech Republic to have him extradited saw Krejcir coming to South Africa. He was arrested at the airport, but an alleged bribe kept him in the country. Within a few years Krejcir had amassed great wealth and his name began being associated with underworld gang members such as Cyril Beeka and Lolly Jackson. It was the murder of Lolly Jackson that brought Krejcir's name into the limelight and revealed his dealing with crime intelligence boss Joey Mabasa and small time criminal George Louka. Over the next three years 10 more deaths took place, each one more dramatic than the next. He was also the victim of a bizarre James Bond style shoot out. His business Moneypoint exploded when a bomb left inside a bag blew up, killing two associates. Soon afterward Krejcir was arrested, but in true Krejcir fashion even a jail cell could not hold him down. Police foiled a plan to murder top cop Colonel Nkosana Ximba and forensic investigator Paul O'Sullivan and to stop numerous escape attempts. He has been found guilty and sentenced for kidnapping, attempted murder and attempted drug possession. He also faces charges for the murder of Sam Issa, the conspiracy to murder investigators and the murder of Phumlani Ncube, a hit man-turned informant. But KREJCIR reveals why we have not heard the last of the worst crime boss South Africa has ever seen.

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Book SynopsisThis book explores how the ‘new’ Asian criminal entrepreneurs in Canada, known as The Big Circle Boys (BCB), competitively dominated the Canadian heroin market in the 1990s without a formal organisation or explicit hierarchical structure. Drawing on the market resilience framework, it examines how the BCB smuggled drugs by using social capital, shared resources, and trust effectively through their ethnicity. How did they counter external security challenges and promote internal competitive cooperation? Were they able to resolve disputes peacefully by managing internal relations? These questions are answered through an analysis of their networking processes and illustrated in the structural properties and dynamics of their mono-ethnic criminal network. For the first time, the BCB players that contributed to the 2001 Canadian and Australian heroin droughts are revealed through intercepted telephone calls and court testimonies. It shows how the BCB collectively switched from heroin to ecstasy since the year 2000. The operation logistics of drug importation and local trafficking are scrutinised. This book speaks to those interested in how a collective of ethnic-Chinese career criminals succeeded and failed in the international drugs trade, particularly for scholars and students of social sciences disciplines.Table of Contents1. Introduction.- 2. Theoretical Frameworks and Concepts.- 3. Heroin 1: Market Resilience and BCB Network Evolution.- 4. Heroin 2: BCB Competitive Cooperation.- 5. Heroin 3: Ho and Sa’s Importation Scheme.- 6. Heroin 4: Counteraction against Police Attacks.- 7. From Heroin to Ecstasy.- 8. Entering the Ecstasy Market.- 9. Internal Management Methods.- 10. The Wong Ecstasy Group.- 11. Conclusion.

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Book SynopsisA biography of the spectacular rise and fall of Eddie Antar, better known as 'Crazy Eddie,' whose home electronics empire changed the world even as it turned out to be one of the biggest business scams of all timeBack in the fall of 2016 we heard the news about the passing of Eddie Antar, 'Crazy Eddie' as he was known to millions of people, the man behind the successful chain of electronic stores and one of the most iconic ad campaigns in history. Few things evoke the New York of a particular era the way 'Crazy Eddie! His prices are insaaaaane!' does. The journalist Herb Greenberg called his death the 'end of an era' and that couldn't be more true. What's insane is that his story has never been told.Before Enron, before Madoff, before The Wolf of Wall Street, Eddie Antar's corruption was second to none. The difference was that it was a street franchise, a local place that was in the blood stream of everyone's daily life in the 1970s

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Book SynopsisA Financial Times Book of the YearAn Economist Best Book of the Year“A triumph of investigative journalism.” —Tom Wright, New York Times bestselling coauthor of Billion Dollar Whale “A fascinating read. Highly recommended!”-John Carreyrou, bestselling author of Bad Blood Truly one of the most nail-biting, page-turning, terrifying true-crime books I've ever read. —Nick Bilton, New York Times bestselling author of American KingpinFrom award-winning journalists Matthew Campbell and Kit Chellel, the gripping, true-crime story of a notorious maritime hijacking at the heart of a massive conspiracy—and the unsolved murder that threatened to unravel it all.In July 2011, the oil tanker Brillante Virtuoso was drifting through the treacherous Gulf of Aden when a crew of pirates attacked and set her ablaze in a devastating ex

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Book SynopsisTHE LIFE AND CRIMES OF AUSTRALIA'S MOST CORRUPT COPTrade ReviewA gritty and unvarnished look inside the CIB ... shining a light on the entrenched culture of cover-up and corruption that has plagued NSW since the Rum Rebellion - Sydney Morning Herald[a] compelling and unapologetically unsympathetic account of Australia's most notorious former policeman - Weekend Australiana must read for fans of the true crime genre - NSW Police News

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Book SynopsisFor gamblers and fun-seekers, Atlantic City is a place to chase your dreams. But for taxi driver Ed Behr, it''s where his personal nightmare is all too real. He is haunted by violent flashbacks to his time in prison and sustained only by his obsession with finding Honey, the girl who promised him everything. Then he recognises one of the old gang from the days before the bad things happened that got them all sent down. Except for Billy Moon, that is, who went on to bigger and better things while they were left to rot. And now Ed has a plan that''s going to reunite the gang, make enough dough, and sort out Billy Moon once and for all. Maybe even get Honey back too. That''s if he doesn''t get them all killed first...

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Book SynopsisThe city of Seattle burned down in 1889. When it was rebuilt, much of the old city remained, buried beneath the modern streets. Nobody really knows what''s down there any more... Now a suspected psycho and the eight-year-old girl he has taken hostage during a bungled heist are about to find out, when they crash through the floor of an abandoned warehouse into a street no one has walked down for a hundred years. Pursued by an ex-Vietnam Tunnel Rat brought in by the Seattle PD - a man with one or two mental problems of his own - Hilton Badcock has no choice but to drag young Ali further into the underground maze in search of a way out. But the deeper they go into this strange, secret world, the weirder and more dangerous things get...

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Book SynopsisDeepfake technology can create video evidence of just about anything: Hollywood superstar Margot Robbie in an orgy.Chinese president Xi Jinping declaring nuclear war.Basketball legend Michael Jordan winning the World Cup. The only limit is the imagination. In a time where fake news and disinformation is becoming harder and harder to identify, it is more essential than ever to understand the dark origins of deepfakes. Journalist Michael Grothaus goes down the rabbit hole as he interviews the often morally dubious, yet incredibly skilled creators of this content. It's a journey that opens a window into the communities transforming reality. Challenging, enlightening and terrifying, Trust No One asks the question other people are too scared to: what happens when you can no longer believe your own eyes?'An alarming look at deepfakes' Sunday Times'Michael Grothaus takes a hard look at the growth of deep fakes, examining cases that demonstrate the threats presented by morally dubious creators. From the personal to political, the impact of deep fakes is considered carefully by Grothaus, both on the victims and on society as a whole, creating an essential picture of a growing trend in disinformation' Eliot Higgins, founder of BellingcatTrade ReviewA clear, readable rundown of how deepfakes are changing our world * The Sunday Times *The page-turner of a book stresses that deepfakes are a ticking timebomb and that we, the public, need to educate ourselves before we herald in a zero-trust society where seeing is no longer believing... If you're looking for a greater understanding of the wild world of deepfakes, how they are created, their benefits and harms as well as their stomach-churning implications; Trust No One is a great place to start. * Reaction *Michael Grothaus takes a hard look at the growth of deep fakes, examining cases that demonstrate the threats presented by morally dubious creators. From the personal to political, the impact of deep fakes is considered carefully by Grothaus, both on the victims and on society as a whole, creating an essential picture of a growing trend in disinformation. -- Eliot Higgins, founder of BellincatThought-provoking . . . he interviews some shady characters and raises interesting questions * Mail On Sunday *An alarming look at deepfakes. * The Sunday Times *Our relationship with visual representations of ourselves always runs along this axis of narcissism and dread: at once promising a defeat of death, but by arousing that desire only to disappoint it, crushingly reinforcing its inevitability. Our fascination with deepfakes strikes me as the latest iteration of this emotional rollercoaster, and it's one Grothaus captures very well. -- Peter Pomerantsev * The Guardian *

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Book SynopsisTHE CARTER WOMEN DON'T FOLLOW THE RULES: THEY MAKE THEM. The brilliant new gangland thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author of DIAMOND.Gangster Max Carter and his ex-wife Annie Carter are leading separate lives in separate countries: past hurts and broken promises cannot be resolved. But then a summons to Majorca and a tragic death makes Max question all that has happened to him over many years.He had two brothers - both are now dead. His closest friend has been found hanging from a London bridge. As the police wrestle with a seemingly unsolvable case, Max is forced to revisit his painful past to find answers to a mystery that seems to make no sense at all. Who is targeting his family and why?Annie Carter is at a crossroads in life. She has a luxurious lifestyle but no one to share it with, and Max clearly thinks she is in danger too. Her daughter, Layla, has left her mafia lover Alberto Barolli and is back in London, stumbling into the police investigation and making waves. You should never go back, so the old saying goes. But then, the Carter women don't follow the rules, they make them.And when the truth of what's been happening is finally revealed, will the Carter family stand together - or will it finish them for good?'We love a gangland thriller - and no one writes them better than Jessie Keane' CLOSER'If you enjoy gangster flicks such as Legend you'll love Never Go Back' YOURSTrade ReviewAnother charged gangland thriller from the bestselling author - Woman's Weekly

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Book SynopsisJukebox Empire follows the many twists and turns in one man’s pursuit of the American dream, from a self-taught electronics genius to money launderer for the mob. This book exposes how the jukebox industry became the vertically integrated business model for organized crime at a time when there was a jukebox in every restaurant, diner, bar, barracks, arcade, and canteen throughout the country. Anyone can afford a nickel for a song and every week the jukeboxes generate millions of dollars in cash, untaxed income, that needed to be laundered.. Beneath this wholesome veneer lies a seamy underworld of juke joints, operators’ routes, smoke-filled showrooms, and violence. Rabinovitch reveals the details of the mob’s international money-laundering scheme to finance running guns to Cuba. The investigation pieces together an epic puzzle that begins in Chicago with the invention of a jukebox and spans the casinos of Havana and the financial giants of Europe, leading to what the FBI called “the biggest bank robbery in the world.”Trade ReviewThis is a brilliant depiction, in evocative prose, of the corrupt juke box industry as controlled by the mob. Anyone interested in how the mob can launder money through a seemingly innocent American past time should read Jukebox Empire. -- Jeffrey Sussman, author of Sin City Gangsters, Boxing and the Mob, and Big Apple GangstersTable of ContentsIllustrationsCast of CharactersPrefaceIntroductionChapter One – OriginsChapter Two – Pay to PlayChapter Three – Coin MenChapter Four – CrimebustersChapter Five – Biggest Bank Robbery in the WorldChapter Six – DollyeChapter Seven – Air ChaseChapter Eight – Front PageChapter Nine – Biggest Burglary SolvedChapter Ten – Wheels of JusticeChapter Eleven – Scheme and ArtificeChapter Twelve – Shoot the MoonConclusionAcknowledgementsBibliographyAbout the Author

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Book SynopsisExplores the history of one of the most violent and deadly city in the United States during the 1920s.

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Book SynopsisFinalist for the 2015 William E. Colby AwardFor more than a decade, America has been waging a new kind of war against the financial networks of rogue regimes, proliferators, terrorist groups, and criminal syndicates. Juan Zarate, a chief architect of modern financial warfare and a former senior Treasury and White House official, pulls back the curtain on this shadowy world. In this gripping story, he explains in unprecedented detail how a small, dedicated group of officials redefined the Treasury's role and used its unique powers, relationships, and reputation to apply financial pressure against America's enemies.This group unleashed a new brand of financial power,one that leveraged the private sector and banks directly to isolate rogues from the international financial system. By harnessing the forces of globalization and the centrality of the American market and dollar, Treasury developed a new way of undermining America's foes. Treasury and its tools soon became, and remain, critical in the most vital geopolitical challenges facing the United States, including terrorism, nuclear proliferation, and the regimes in Iran, North Korea, and Syria.This book is the definitive account, by an unparalleled expert, of how financial warfare has taken pride of place in American foreign policy and how America's competitors and enemies are now learning to use this type of power themselves. This is the unique story of the United States' financial war campaigns and the contours and uses of financial power, and of the warfare to come.Trade ReviewNational Interest "Zarate's book admirably underscores the dire national-security threat posed by the almost-unfathomable level of our national debt... There is much in Zarate's book that enlightens us, and he gets many things right and proposes some innovative ideas." Arnaud de Borchgrave, UPI "One of the world's most challenging assignments -- explained in vivid, dramatic detail by Juan C. Zarate, a former super sleuth in the U.S. government's long campaign to find and disrupt al-Qaida's terrorist funding in the Worldwide Web...Zarate's "Treasury's War" is a gripping electronic whodunit in a constantly changing environment where inequalities are widening and where technology is destroying more jobs than it creates... This is the first book that lifts the veil of secrecy on the financial power [Zarate's team] marshaled against America's enemies." Kirkus Reviews "A bracing account by a knowledgeable authority." General Michael Hayden, former Director of CIA and NSA "Juan Zarate's groundbreaking Treasury's War illuminates an underappreciated and under commented revolution in international affairs. Beset by nontraditional enemies and threats, the United States in the Bush administration leveraged America's place in the global financial system to create some important 'asymmetrical power' of its own. As advocate and architect of this new approach, Zarate is well placed to tell the tale of America's most unique precision guided weapon and he does so with detail, candor, and perspective." Sam Nunn, former U.S. Senator "For those wanting to know how financial power and influence are wielded in the world, this is the book. Juan Zarate not only tells a gripping story, but lays out the policy implications and future for the use of this power. This is a must-read about the evolution of financial warfare over the past decade and how it will continue to play a central role in the nation's security." Finalist for the William E. Colby Military History Award Bryan Burrough, New York Times Business section "For those of us who start feeling drowsy at the very mention of the words 'Treasury Department,' this book is an eye-opener. Under Mr. Zarate, and his successors, Treasury quietly built new capabilities that owe less to junk bonds than to James Bond... 'Treasury's War' does a fine job of shedding light on a new and significant aspect of international relations that many of us may not be aware of, and that is likely to gain in importance in the years to come." Jordan Chandler Hirsch, Washington Post "[A] thorough, thoughtful insider's account... The true value of Zarate's book lies in explaining the difference between traditional sanctions and this new form of financial warfare." ABA Banking Journal "I consider it a must-read for anyone who wants to know where we are, where we've been, and what challenges lie ahead... Treasury's War is detailed, interesting, and sincere."

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Book SynopsisAs a boy, Miguel Ángel Tobar fled a small town in El Salvador torn apart by warring guerrillas and US-backed death squads. As a teen in Los Angeles, he fought discrimination and beatings by joining a gang, MS-13. By the time the US deported him to San Salvador, the Hollywood Kid joined a wave of US-bred gangsters, whose violence-in concert with corrupt offiicals-have in turn helped propel new waves of refugees.The incomparable Salvadoran journalist Óscar Martinez got to know the Hollywood Kid and met with him as he first turned on MS-13, killing gang members, and then in turn was assassinated by other gang members. In intensely vivid scenes, Martínez and his anthropologist brother Juan tell the story of a violent life and death-and of the geopolitical forces that propelled a country into becoming one of the most violent on earth.Trade Review(El Niño de Hollywood) is a revelation. As they track a single tragic life, Los Hermanos Martínez delve deep into El Salvador's tortured labyrinth, into the macabre working of the Mara Salvatruches, into the sinister consequence of failed US policies, and in the process recover what Neil Smith called the lost history of the American Empire. This is reportage made literature, darkness made light, and one of the most important books of investigative journalism I've read in years. -- Junot DiazAs the poet William Blake famously put it, 'general forms have their vitality in particulars, and every particular is a Man'. The Martinez D'Aubuisson brothers' beautifully written account of the life and death of the feared gangster El Niño de Hollywood, based on hours and hours of interviews with him and those close to him, starkly reveals the underlying dynamics of the Central American gang phenomenon in vivid and insightful detail. -- Dennis Rodgers, author of Global GangsThe graceful, incisive writing lifts The Beast from being merely an impressive feat of reportage into the realm of literature. Mr. Martínez has produced something that is an honorable successor to enduring works like George Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier or Jacob Riis's How the Other Half Lives. -- Larry Rohter * New York Times *Martínez dives into the underworld of his subjects, navigating barrios that police won't enter, spending days and nights with gang members. His methods resemble war reporting and his prose is cinematic . The collection's strength lies in his ability to write the hell out of his material. Like Katherine Boo's Behind the Beautiful Forevers and Adrian Nicole LeBlanc's Random Family, it skimps on statistics and analysis, instead relying on description alone to create a world that captures the reader and doesn't let her go. One of the stories, 'El Niño Hollywood's Death Foretold,' evokes Gabriel García Márquez's Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Like the beloved Colombian writer, Martínez pens scenes that are suspenseful, moving, and vivid. -- Sarah Esther Maslin * New Republic *Óscar Martínez deserves praise not only for his efforts, and for what he writes about, but because he writes so very well. * New Yorker *Martínez's credentials for writing about this ignored human tide are impeccable: his first book, The Beast, drew on eight trips clinging to the roof of the infamous migrants' train through Mexico, chronicling their desperation in grippingly graphic detail. His new book, A History of Violence, takes a step back to explore what the migrants heading to the US are running away from the unflinching cameos it paints offer a chilling portrait of corruption, unimaginable brutality and impunity. * Financial Times *A powerful storyteller and his approach to investigative journalism is closer to anthropological immersion. * Columbia Journalism Review *One of the bravest writers in Latin America, if not the world. He's also one of the best * Dazed and Confused *Masterfully told. -- Belen Fernandez * NACLA *The Hollywood Kid is a gripping read, thoroughly researched and dramatically conveyed. -- Hilary Goodfriend * Jacobin *The Martínez brothers' book tells the story of an MS-13 hitman known as the Hollywood Kid. He was recruited to the gang in El Salvador by a twenty-year-old former member of the National Police, escaped the civil war to California, was deported in 1994, then began his own clica (clique, or gang chapter) in Salvadoran coffee country. -- Rachel Nolan * NYRB *

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Book SynopsisNigeria and Nigerians have acquired a notorious reputation for involvement in drug-trafficking, fraud, cyber-crime and other types of serious crime. Successful Nigerian criminal networks have a global reach, interacting with their Italian, Latin American and Russian counterparts. Yet in 1944, a British colonial official wrote that 'the number of persistent and professional criminals is not great' in Nigeria and that 'crime as a career has so far made little appeal to the young Nigerian'. This book traces the origins of Nigerian organised crime to the last years of colonial rule, when nationalist politicians acquired power at a regional level. In need of funds for campaigning, they offered government contracts to foreign businesses in return for kickbacks, in a pattern that recurs to this day. Political corruption encouraged a wider disrespect for the law that spread throughout Nigerian society. When the country's oil boom came to an end in the early 1980s, young Nigerian college graduates headed abroad, eager to make money by any means. Nigerian crime went global at the very moment new criminal markets were emerging all over the world.Trade Review'In This Present Darkness, Stephen Ellis, one of Britain's most accomplished Africanists, provides a cautionary reminder of how much tougher the job is now, and how blurred the lines between officially sanctioned and illicit activity have become ... this is the most deeply researched book yet on the nature and origins of Nigerian organised crime.' * Financial Times *'For decades Nigeria has suffered a doubly dubious reputation: recognised as a kleptocracy and notorious for its armies of imaginative criminals, formed into organisations with international reach. ... This state of affairs is ably documented and explained by Stephen Ellis-a British expert on African affairs, who died last year-in an excellent history of Nigerian organised crime, This Present Darkness.' * The Economist *'In his final book, the eminent Africanist Stephen Ellis explores how the country became a hotbed of illicit trade, endemic corruption and organised crime after the collapse of the oil industry.' * Times Higher Education *Table of ContentsIntroduction * How to read this bookChapter One: Rules of Law * The civilizing mission* Indirect rule and law* A school for deceptionChapter Two: Wonder-Workers * The Professor of Wonders* Wealth, risk, destiny* A hollow systemChapter Three: Enter the Politicians * The impact of the Second World War * Nationalism and corruption* Political parties and corruptionChapter Four: The National Cake * Independence* The foreign contribution* Corruption spreads to daily lifeChapter Five: The Men in Uniform * Coup and counter-coup* The oil issue* The new criminalityChapter Six: Boom Time * Nigeria rampant* Corruption, crime, cults* The Second RepublicChapter Seven: Crime Goes Global * The drug trade* Four One Nine* The rise and fall of anti-corruption* Ethnic issuesChapter Eight: Godfathers * Babangida...and another criminal arrives* Oil as loot* Democrats/kleptocratsChapter Nine: The Business of Crime * Crime as a career* The Kings of Four One Nine* Drugs * Sex work* Organization Chapter Ten: Cosmic Powers * Cults and shrines* The Okija shrine* Law versus reality* Society and anti-societyChapter Eleven: Nigerian Organized Crime * State crime* Why Nigeria?* Nigerian crime in globalizationAnnexeBibliography

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Book Synopsis'Human trafficking' brings to mind gangsters forcing people, often women and girls, to engage in dangerous activities against their will, under threat of violence. However, human trafficking is not limited to the sex trade, and this picture is inadequate. It occurs in many different industries---domestic service, construction, factory labour, on farms and fishing boats---and targets people from all over the globe. Human trafficking is much more complicated and nuanced picture than its common representations. Victims move through multiple categories along their journey and at their destination, shifting from smuggled migrant to trafficking victim and back again several times. The emergence of a criminal pyramid scheme also makes many victims complicit in their own exploitation. Finally, the threat posed by the involvement of organised crime is little understood. The profit motives and violence that come with such crime make human trafficking more dangerous for its victims and difficult to detect or address. Drawing on field research in source, transit and destination countries, the authors analyse trafficking from four countries: Albania, Eritrea, Nigeria and Vietnam. What emerges is a business model that evolves in response to changes in legislation, governance and law enforcement capacities.Trade Review‘A very interesting study.’ -- CHOICE'Relying on extensive field research, this book is a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners working on organised crime. The authors take a nuanced approach to human trafficking and smuggling and their analysis resonates beyond the case studies under exam.' -- Virginia Comolli, Senior Fellow for Conflict, Security and Development, The International Institute for Strategic Studies'Challenging common sense assumptions about human trafficking and organised crime, this book should become a must read for anyone interested in developing a more nuanced understanding and unpicking binaries: Smuggler or trafficker? Victim or culprit? Choice or coercion? Organised crime or ad hoc network? A welcome addition to understanding this complex phenomenon.' -- Carole Murphy, Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Sociology, and Deputy Director of the Centre for the Study of Modern Slavery at St Mary’s University

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Book SynopsisFor decades, a war to control Glasgow's streets has been waged. On one side are some of the most violent and dangerous criminals in the world and, on the other, a police force with officers as hard as the gangsters, striving to keep the city safe. In GLASGOW CRIMEFIGHTER, legendary detective Les Brown tells the extraordinary and controversial inside story of his part in this conflict during his twenty-two years as a Glasgow detective. Throughout this time, he dealt with gangland bosses like Arthur Thompson and Tam McGraw, took on mobs of street fighters and helped in the hunt for Bible John. Compelling, hard-hitting and intensely human, GLASGOW CRIMEFIGHTER is a fascinating report from the frontline of a great city's battle against crime.

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Book SynopsisA century before the emergence of its cousin, the Sicilian mafia, the criminal organisation known as 'The Camorra' was establishing a deadly grip on Naples and Southern Italy. Its influence today is as strong as ever. This account of the organisation and its shadowy leaders reveals a crime syndicate of extraordinary power and resources: it involves the major political parties, along with the police, judiciary, administrators and leading figures in the business community.Trade Review"'Very well-researched... excellent' - Vincenzo Ruggiero, THES 'Lively and readable... honest and interesting' - Mark Galeotti, Modern Italy 'Excellent, an exciting read' - Carl Levy 'Tom Behan convincingly shows that all levels of the Italian state, including the judiciary are sufficiently corrupt and in hock to the Camorra as to make all reformist solutions bankrupt' - Socialist Review"Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction 1 The origins of the Camorra and the Mafia 2 The postwar development of the Camorra 3 The 'administrative economy' and the 1980 earthquake 4 The 'business camorra' of the Nuvoletta gang 5 The Cirillo affair 6 How the Camorra works 7 Criminal politics 8 Who will stop the Camorra? Conclusion - Ha da passà 'a nuttata Tables Notes Index

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Book SynopsisIn analyzing how economic crime was managed in Russia, from the Brezhnev era to the Yeltsin years, this book reveals the historical roots of the 'criminal problem' that has marked Russian politics since the late 1980s. During the closing decades of the Soviet regime, the daily struggle against shortages of goods and services precipitated a rapid increase in the black market and other underground practices, visible to all, but still deemed illegal. How did Soviet police officers and judges select the cases they dealt with on a daily basis? And how were the funds and manpower dedicated to combating 'economic crime' actually deployed? Law enforcement agencies also had to deal with the aftermath of Mikhail Gorbachev's liberal economic reforms. Russia's economy underwent far-reaching change, its judicial framework proved obsolete to combat the new challenges and its police woke up to the possibility of privatising or selling their professional knowhow. Drawing on first hand research and interviews with criminals and police officers, this scrupulous study investigates the changing nature of criminal law and policing before and after the fall of the Soviet state.

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Book SynopsisThe planet is currently experiencing alarming levels of species loss caused in large part by intensified poaching and wildlife trafficking driven by expanding demand, for medicines, for food, and for trophies. Affecting many more species than just the iconic elephants, rhinos, and tigers, the rate of extinction is now as much as 1000 times the historical average and the worst since the dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago. In addition to causing irretrievable biodiversity loss, wildlife trafficking also poses serious threats to public health, potentially triggering a global pandemic. The Extinction Market explores the causes, means, and consequences of poaching and wildlife trafficking, with a view to finding ways of suppressing them. Vanda Felbab-Brown travelled to the markets of Latin America, South and South East Asia, and eastern and southern Africa, to evaluate the effectiveness of various tools, including bans on legal trade, law enforcement, and interdiction; allowing legal supply from hunting or farming; alternative livelihoods; anti- money-laundering efforts; and demand reduction strategies. This is an urgent book offering meaningful solutions to one of the world's most pressing crises.Trade Review'The Extinction Market is an especially needed contribution to comprehend the tightly interwoven licit and illicit economies based around biodiversity hotspots and endangered wildlife.' -- H-Environment

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Book SynopsisThe role of women in the Italian mafias has long been overlooked. Reduced to victim status and relegated to domestic life in a male-dominated society, women serve as the mafia's respectable facade: virtuous and docile. It is hard to picture these immaculate figures married to and raising brutal killers. But, as Milka Kahn and Anne Veron reveal in this absorbing book, women have always been at the heart of Italy's criminal organisations, as the guarantors of mafia culture. While the men are behind bars or on the run, it is left to their wives and mothers to uphold and pass on the 'family values'. Once widowed, they push their sons to vendetta; they are increasingly becoming mafia chiefs in their own right. Yet many also decide to risk their lives and break with 'the Family', collaborating with the authorities and renouncing mafia society in search of a normal life. So who are these women? Are they pure Madonnas, or dangerous Godmothers? Women of Honour paints a complex and fascinating portrait through extremely rare interviews with the women themselves, who have overcome a culture of silence to share their extraordinary lives.Trade Review'Kahn and Véron have trawled newspapers and legal documents and interviewed dozens of women to provide vivid stories of tough-minded female bosses, ruling without mercy.' -- Times Literary Supplement'These fascinating stories of courage, collaboration and criminal mastery offer new insight into the changing role of women in mafia culture.' * Clare Longrigg, author of Mafia Women *'Engrossing. Kahn and Véron take us into a world in which women play an important role but in which — with few exceptions — their identities, their private lives and sex lives all belong to their menfolk; a world in which rebellion leads inexorably to either life on a witness protection programme, or death.' * John Hooper, author of The Italians *

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Book SynopsisThis book presents the first comprehensive study of international criminal jurisdiction over organized crime. Taking into account a broad range of profit-generating crimes, including human trafficking, migrant smuggling, drug trafficking, and illicit trade in arms and ammunition, Strobel draws a concise picture of who can be prosecuted for what under which circumstances by analysing the current legal framework as defined by the Rome Statute, and by discussing future developments that could further facilitate such prosecutions. Whereas international criminal law in the strict sense has long been considered not to apply to organized crime, Strobel convincingly demonstrates that international criminal prosecutions hold underexploited potential to bring leaders of cartels and trafficking rings to justice.Table of ContentsAbbreviations Table of Treaties, Resolutions and Other Legal Documents Table of Cases 1 Introduction 2 The Status Quo of Organized Crime in International Criminal Law  2.1 Organized Crime   2.1.1 Legal Definition of Organized Crime   2.1.2 Relevant Crimes    2.1.2.1 Drug Trafficking    2.1.2.2 Trafficking in Persons and Subsequent Exploitation    2.1.2.3 Migrant Smuggling    2.1.2.4 Illicit Trade in Arms and Ammunition, Natural Resources, and Cultural Goods    2.1.2.5 Corruption    2.1.2.6 Money Laundering    2.1.2.7 Organized Crime-Related Violence   2.1.3 Types of Organizations    2.1.3.1 Hierarchical Organized Criminal Groups    2.1.3.2 Criminal Networks   2.1.4 Geographic Scope   2.1.5 Impact of Organized Crime  2.2 Organized Crime in Transnational Criminal Law   2.2.1 The Current Role of International Law in Combating Organized Crime   2.2.2 Transnational Criminal Law Conventions    2.2.2.1 The UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocols Thereto    2.2.2.2 International Drug Control Conventions    2.2.2.3 Conventions against Corruption    2.2.2.4 Provisions on Money Laundering and Related Instruments    2.2.2.5 Other Transnational Criminal Law  2.2.3 Other Relevant International Conventions  2.2.4 Regional Criminal Law  2.2.5 The International Enforcement Regime  2.3 Organized Crime in International Criminal Law Stricto Sensu  2.3.1 The Evolution of International Criminal Law Stricto Sensu  2.3.2 The Relevance of International Criminal Law Stricto Sensu to Organized Crime    2.3.2.1 The Telos of International Criminal Law    2.3.2.2 Empirical Interconnection: The Crime–Conflict Nexus  2.3.3 Organized Crime in the History of International Criminal Law Stricto Sensu    2.3.3.1 Organized Crime Offenses in International Criminal Tribunals    2.3.3.2 Organized Crime Offenses and the Making of the Rome Statute  2.4 Assessment 3 Organized Crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court  3.1 Procedural Requirements for Jurisdiction   3.1.1 Trigger Mechanisms   3.1.2 Preconditions to the Exercise of Jurisdiction   3.1.3 The Principle of Complementarity  3.2 Substantive Law: Jurisdiction Ratione Materiae   3.2.1 The Crime of Genocide    3.2.1.1 Mental Element: The Dolus Specialis of Genocide    3.2.1.2 Material Elements    3.2.1.3 Summary   3.2.2 Crimes against Humanity    3.2.2.1 Contextual Elements    3.2.2.2 Material Elements: Individual Acts    3.2.2.3 Summary   3.2.3 War Crimes    3.2.3.1 Contextual Elements    3.2.3.2 Material Elements    3.2.3.3 Summary  3.3 Substantive Law: Attribution of a Crime   3.3.1 Perpetration   3.3.2 Participation   3.3.3 Superior Responsibility  3.4 Assessment 4 Organized Crime and International Criminal Law De Lege Ferenda  4.1 Potential Developments Within the Current Jurisdictional Framework   4.1.1 Mental Elements    4.1.1.1 Dolus Eventualis    4.1.1.2 The Dolus Specialis Requirement for Pillage   4.1.2 Material Elements: Trafficking in Persons and Enslavement  4.2 Expanded Jurisdiction Ratione Materiae   4.2.1 Criteria for the Introduction of New Offenses   4.2.2 Common Contextual Elements   4.2.3 Potential Offenses and Their Material Elements    4.2.3.1 The Crime of Drug Trafficking    4.2.3.2 Illicit Trade in Arms and Ammunition, Natural Resources, and Cultural Goods    4.2.3.3 The Crime of Migrant Smuggling    4.2.3.4 Corruption    4.2.3.5 Money Laundering   4.2.4 Summary  4.3 An International Tribunal Focused on Organized Crime   4.3.1 Procedural Requirements for Jurisdiction   4.3.2 Jurisdiction Ratione Materiae   4.3.3 Organizational Setup  4.4 Assessment 5 Conclusion References Index

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Book SynopsisJeffrey Sussman is the author of 19 books, including Backbeat Gangsters (2025), Tinseltown Gangsters (2024), Big Apple Gangsters (2022), and Boxing and the Mob (2019). Jeffrey lives in New York City.

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Book SynopsisDavid Rabinovitch is an EMMY, Peabody, and Gemini Award-winning film maker. With a background in investigative journalism, he has written for the Toronto Globe & Mail, San Francisco Chronicle, TIME Magazine, and U.S. News & World Report. He was raised in the prairie town of Morden, Manitoba, where his uncle Wolfe Rabin's exploits remain a subject of myth and lore. He divides his time between the Pacific Northwest and Baja California.

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Book SynopsisDr. Nelli . . . describes the kinds of crime that prevailed in Italian immigrant enclaves in America; like most American crime, then as now, Italian crime was one aspect of the so-called culture of urban povertyboys graduated from street gangs to criminal gangs. None of these gangs were very big until Prohibition brought the Great Leap Forward, to a level that Dr. Nelli calls 'entrepreneurial crime.' His fine account makes sense of many murderous incidents, differentiates among places, and sketches individuals and the talents (Torrio's brains, Capone's brutality) that enabled them to rise in the underworld.New YorkerA definitive history of organized crime in America.American Historical Review

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Book SynopsisIn this account of mass media images, David Ruth looks at Al Capone and other "invented" gangsters of the 1920s and 1930s. It shows that the media gangster was less a reflection of reality than a projection created from Americans' values, concerns and ideas about what would sell.

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Book SynopsisA searing portrait of the crack epidemic and violent drug wars that once ravaged the South Bronx.Trade Review"... a gripping narrative... this is a fascinating, albeit dispiriting read, a searing portrait of the appalling inequalities of the American Dream gone sour, a three-act tragedy played out against a soundtrack of gangsta rap." -- The Mail on Sunday"If any professionals are contemplating retraining as gang members to replace income diverted by the decline of their industries, seek counsel first from this riveting book." -- Strong Words

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Book SynopsisA searing portrait of the crack epidemic and violent drug wars that once ravaged the South Bronx.Trade Review"... a gripping narrative... this is a fascinating, albeit dispiriting read, a searing portrait of the appalling inequalities of the American Dream gone sour, a three-act tragedy played out against a soundtrack of gangsta rap." -- Mail on Sunday"If any professionals are contemplating retraining as gang members to replace income diverted by the decline of their industries, seek counsel first from this riveting book." -- Strong Words

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Book SynopsisPart true crime, part work of urban sociology, Land of Opportunity is a meticulously researched account of the rise and fall of the Chambers brothers, who ran a multi-million-dollar crack cocaine operation in Detroit in the 1980s.Trade ReviewWith graceful restraint, Adler shows us that the war on drugs is not a war of the county against those who would bring it down by rejecting its values and grasping at easy money. It is a war of a country against itself, against its history of racism, against its own values of materialism and lack of concern for all its people." - The Washington Post"Relying on countless interviews [. . .] including interviews with the jailed brothers, William M. Adler offers not only an excellent chronicle of the rags-to-riches-to-prison-garb story of these particular entrepreneurs but also a cogent explanation of the social and economic conditions in this country that make dealing drugs an attractive career choice." - Chicago TribuneTable of Contents Foreword Cast of Selected Characters Introduction: Homecoming Chapter One: Land of Cotton Chapter Two: Washing Windows in a Blizzard Chapter Three: Heaven Dust Chapter Four: 'BJ, Why Don't You Start Selling Crack?' Chapter Five: Cool Hand Larry Chapter Six: Moving Like Lightning Chapter Seven: Marlow's One-Stop Chapter Eight: 'Good-bye, Dixie Land' Chapter Nine: Too Windy for Tear Gas Chapter Ten: 'We Rich, Goddammit!' Chapter Eleven: 'Fuck It, I'll Fix Him' Chapter Twelve: All in the Family Chapter Thirteen: A Tale of Two Cities Chapter Fourteen: As Close As Brothers Get Epilogue: Nothing to Lose Afterword Acknowledgments Notes Selected Bibliography

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Book SynopsisUnderstanding Criminal Networks is a short methodological primer for those interested in studying illicit, deviant, covert, or criminal networks using social network analysis (SNA). Accessibly written by Gisela Bichler, a leading expert in SNA for dark networks, the book is chock-full of graphics, checklists, software tips, step-by-step guidance, and straightforward advice. Covering all the essentials, each chapter highlights three themes: the theoretical basis of networked criminology,methodological issues and useful analytic tools,and producing professional analysis. Unlike any other book on the market, the book combines conceptual and empirical work with advice on designing networking studies, collecting data, and analysis. Relevant, practical, theoretical, and methodologically innovative, Understanding Criminal Networks promises to jumpstart readers' understanding of how to cross over from conventional investigations of crime to the study of criminal networks.Trade Review"Bichler provides a compelling introduction and guide to criminal networks: what they are, how they are organized, and how the tools of social network analysis may be used to understand them." * CHOICE *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations and Tables 1. READ FIRST A Practical Example Problem-Oriented Policing P.I.V.O.T. Utility of Social Network Analysis Objective of this Book Organization of the Book 2. DEMYSTIFYING SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS Example Project Methods Units Focus Relations Analytic Options 3. SOCIAL NETWORK THEORY 101 Assumptions of Social Network Analysis Four Essential Theoretical Perspectives Strength of Weak Ties Structural Holes Theory of Social Capital Small-World Perspective Contagion and Three Degrees of Influence Suggested Readings 4. CONNECTED CRIMINALITY Overview of Theoretical Congruence Biopsychological Theories Control Theories Developmental Theories Strain Theories Hyperdyadic Social Learning in the World of Methamphetamine Data Source and Inspiration Learning Theory Refresher Integrating Learning Theory with Hyperdyadic Spread— Methamphetamine Example Visualizing Anonymous Networks Suggested Readings 5. CONNECTED EVENTS Overview of Theoretical Congruence Deterrence and Situational Theories Neighborhood Ecological Theories A Networked Account of Opportunity Theories Crime Pattern Theory Routine Activity Theory An Integrated Theory of Networked Opportunity Suggested Readings 6. WHO IS WHO? Rapid Onset Current Understanding Co-offending Criminal Groups Criminal Enterprise 7. GATHERING DATA Assembling Information about Criminal Networks Research Designs Sampling Collecting Data Small World Method Suggested Readings 8. MAPPING NETWORKS Data Integration Consolidating Relational Information Entity Resolution Estimating the Amount of Missing Data Sensitivity Analysis Detecting Corrupted Data Digit Analysis Example Digital Analysis of Global Weapons Trade Final Words of Advice 9. DESCRIBING NETWORKS Describing the Whole Network General Descriptive Statistics Structural Description of a Whole Network Clustering Investigating Actor Positioning Degree Centrality Betweenness Centrality Egocentric Networks Descriptive Statistics Measures of Central Positioning 10. ADVANCED ANALYTIC OPTIONS Transitivity Nondirected Graphs Directed Graphs Gang Violence Example Subgroup Identification Top-Down Approaches Bottom-Up Approaches Example Application Advanced Analytics 11. PRODUCING PROFESSIONAL PRODUCTS Making Critics Happy Visualizing Connections Slices and Layouts Image Elements Presentation Tips Drivers Academic Research Centers Practitioner-Oriented Programs Professional Associations and Training Opportunities Concluding Remarks References Index

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Book SynopsisReveals how governments and the wider establishment copy the practices of organised crime groups in order to control themTrade Review'Mike Woodiwiss has dedicated his career to unpacking the often toxic packaging surrounding the concept of organized crime. In Double Crossed, he focusses on the myths of organized crime, its social, economic and legal constructions and, most importantly, the architects and beneficiaries of this myth making' -- Professor Dick Hobbs, Author of Lush Life: Constructing Organized Crime in the UK'As one of the foremost thinkers on organized crime, Mike Woodiwiss rarely disappoints. In this book, he is on great form' -- Kristofer Allerfeldt, University of Exeter, Author of Crime and the Rise of Modern America: A History 1865-1941'Brings solid historical evidence and analysis to the task of refuting conventional wisdom that prefers to see organized crime as something external from our capitalistic political, economic and social systems' -- Margaret Beare, author of Critical Reflections on Transnational Organized Crime, Money Laundering and Corruption (2003)Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Preface Part I: Dumbing Down: The Construction of an Acceptable Understanding of 'Organized Crime' Introduction 1. The Rise and Fall of Muckraking Business Criminality 2. America’s Moral Crusade and the Making of Illegal Markets Inset 1: The Origins of Mafia Mythology in America 3. Charles G. Dawes and the Molding of Public Opinion on Organized Crime 4. Al Capone as Public Enemy Number 1 5. Al Capone and the Business of Crime Inset 2: The Legends and Lives of Al Capone and Eliot Ness 6. Americanizing Mussolini’s Phony War against the Mafia 7. 'Organized Crime' in a Fascist State 8. Gangbusting and Propaganda 9. Thomas E. Dewey and 'the Greatest Gangster in America' 10. From Gangbusters to Murder Inc. Part II: Lies about Criminals: Constructing an Acceptable 'History' of Organized Crime Introduction 1. The Genesis of the Atlantic City 'Conference' Legend 2. Consolidating the 'Conference' Legend 3. The Purge that Wasn’t 4. The US Government’s History of Organized Crime Inset 3: Lucky Luciano and a Life in Exile Part III: Covering up Failure: Constructing an Acceptable Response to 'Organized Crime' Introduction 1. Mafia Mythology and the Federal Response 2. President Richard Nixon and Organized Crime Control 3. Challenging the Orthodoxy 4. Sustaining and Updating Mafia Mythology 5. From Super-Government to Super-Governments: The Pluralist Revision of Organized Crime 6. The Origins of the Anti-Money Laundering Regime Inset 4: Meyer Lansky and the Origins of Money Laundering History 7. Informants, Liars and Paranoiacs 8. Seizing Assets to Fund the Crime War 9. Drug Prohibition and the Prison Gang Phenomenon 10. Organized Business Crime: The Elephant in the Room 11. Deregulation and the Rise of Corporate Fraud 12. Fraud and the Financial Meltdown 13. Hiding the Failure of Organized Crime Control 14. Repression as Organized Crime Control Part IV: Selling Failure: Setting the Global Agenda on Drugs, Organized Crime and Money Laundering Introduction 1. Losing Corporate Criminality from Transnational Crime 2. Building Capacity 3. Americanizing the British Drug Control System 4. Dumbing Down the International Response to Drugs and 'Organized Crime' 5. Repression, Profits and Slaughter: The United States in Colombia and Mexico 6. The Atlantic Alliance as a Money Laundry Epilogue Notes Index

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Book SynopsisReveals how governments and the wider establishment copy the practices of organised crime groups in order to control themTrade Review'Mike Woodiwiss has dedicated his career to unpacking the often toxic packaging surrounding the concept of organized crime. In Double Crossed, he focusses on the myths of organized crime, its social, economic and legal constructions and, most importantly, the architects and beneficiaries of this myth making' -- Professor Dick Hobbs, Author of Lush Life: Constructing Organized Crime in the UK'As one of the foremost thinkers on organized crime, Mike Woodiwiss rarely disappoints. In this book, he is on great form' -- Kristofer Allerfeldt, University of Exeter, Author of Crime and the Rise of Modern America: A History 1865-1941'Brings solid historical evidence and analysis to the task of refuting conventional wisdom that prefers to see organized crime as something external from our capitalistic political, economic and social systems' -- Margaret Beare, author of Critical Reflections on Transnational Organized Crime, Money Laundering and Corruption (2003)Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Preface Part I: Dumbing Down: The Construction of an Acceptable Understanding of 'Organized Crime' Introduction 1. The Rise and Fall of Muckraking Business Criminality 2. America’s Moral Crusade and the Making of Illegal Markets Inset 1: The Origins of Mafia Mythology in America 3. Charles G. Dawes and the Molding of Public Opinion on Organized Crime 4. Al Capone as Public Enemy Number 1 5. Al Capone and the Business of Crime Inset 2: The Legends and Lives of Al Capone and Eliot Ness 6. Americanizing Mussolini’s Phony War against the Mafia 7. 'Organized Crime' in a Fascist State 8. Gangbusting and Propaganda 9. Thomas E. Dewey and 'the Greatest Gangster in America' 10. From Gangbusters to Murder Inc. Part II: Lies about Criminals: Constructing an Acceptable 'History' of Organized Crime Introduction 1. The Genesis of the Atlantic City 'Conference' Legend 2. Consolidating the 'Conference' Legend 3. The Purge that Wasn’t 4. The US Government’s History of Organized Crime Inset 3: Lucky Luciano and a Life in Exile Part III: Covering up Failure: Constructing an Acceptable Response to 'Organized Crime' Introduction 1. Mafia Mythology and the Federal Response 2. President Richard Nixon and Organized Crime Control 3. Challenging the Orthodoxy 4. Sustaining and Updating Mafia Mythology 5. From Super-Government to Super-Governments: The Pluralist Revision of Organized Crime 6. The Origins of the Anti-Money Laundering Regime Inset 4: Meyer Lansky and the Origins of Money Laundering History 7. Informants, Liars and Paranoiacs 8. Seizing Assets to Fund the Crime War 9. Drug Prohibition and the Prison Gang Phenomenon 10. Organized Business Crime: The Elephant in the Room 11. Deregulation and the Rise of Corporate Fraud 12. Fraud and the Financial Meltdown 13. Hiding the Failure of Organized Crime Control 14. Repression as Organized Crime Control Part IV: Selling Failure: Setting the Global Agenda on Drugs, Organized Crime and Money Laundering Introduction 1. Losing Corporate Criminality from Transnational Crime 2. Building Capacity 3. Americanizing the British Drug Control System 4. Dumbing Down the International Response to Drugs and 'Organized Crime' 5. Repression, Profits and Slaughter: The United States in Colombia and Mexico 6. The Atlantic Alliance as a Money Laundry Epilogue Notes Index

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