Organized crime Books

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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