As I See It
Nexus between organised crime and terrorism
Decline in the political order, deteriorating economic conditions and expanding underground economies create conditions for activity outside the legal framework. Lack of meaningful and effective state-to-state cooperation works to the advantage of criminals and criminal organisations.
Internationally based organised criminal groups having access to vast financial resources have become a threat to the stability of the international economic system. By infiltrating societies the world over, organised crime has become an international security threat.
Substantial enterprises, often with trans-national connections, involve "employees" ranging from several hundred to several thousand. The economic behaviour of criminal organisations is intentional, and identifiable leaders direct the activities. Violence is used sparingly, but is resorted to deliberately when required to achieve certain goals and protect "business" interests. Bribery is used to corrupt the legal system and evade prosecution by large scale suborning of government officials.
The United Nations (UN) defines "organised crime" as "large-scale and complex criminal activity carried on by groups of persons, however loosely or tightly organised, for the enrichment of those participating and at the expense of the community and its members through ruthless disregard of any law, including offences against the person, and frequently in connection with political corruption."
"Organised crime" is defined by the FBI as, "groups having formalised structure whose primary objective is to obtain money through illegal activities, maintaining their position through actual or threatened violence, corrupting of public officials, graft, or extortion, and generally having a significant impact on the people in their locales, region, or the country as a whole."
Poverty and unemployment create a favourable environment for criminals to exploit illegal labour for organised criminal activities, and undermine the social fabric of countries. By forcing legal businesses to generate employment for a "fee," organised crime actually plays a positive social role as a dispenser of services. Where tax evasion is prevalent it is involved in large-scale money laundering.
Manipulating and monopolising financial markets and labour unions, organised crime uses legitimate industries like construction and hauling of garbage. Its "businesses" include prostitution and human trafficking, and bringing drugs into cities. Spreading misery nationally and globally, they also have the ability to con people and enterprises out of millions each year through various stock frauds and financial scams. A recent UN report says organised crime had revenues of $2 trillion last year, double of all the military budgets in the world combined.
Operating outside the control of the government, they run a parallel society, threatening the stability of the country by laundering ill-gotten money that they convert into acceptable legal instruments and assets, as well as gain social respectability. The nexus between the illegal underworld and the economics of parallel illegal markets has not attracted the serious attention of research scholars, experts and social scientists, or even the media. The public remains largely unaware of, and indifferent to, their activities or their overall impact on society as a whole.
Organised crime and terrorism have developed a symbiotic relationship, both result from ineffective governance, yet it is essential to differentiate between them. All terrorist acts are not organised crime, neither are all organised criminal acts terrorism; in most developed countries, organised crime thrives with little or no terrorist activity, and in most developing countries, terrorism exists along with varying levels of organised criminal activity.
Terrorism aims to overthrow the existing government by altering the status quo, while organised crime aims to form a parallel government while coexisting with the existing one; change in the status quo is only circumstantial and out of convenience, rather than zealous revisionist policy.
Terrorism primarily uses violent means, organised crime prefers non-violence, notwithstanding the odd resort to belligerence and is driven purely by political objectives, despite exploitation of regional, national and religious sentiments to achieve their ends; conversely, economic objectives are the operational determinants of organised crime.
Terrorists are motivated by ideology and criminals by greed; separate and distinct threats, yet a cooperation growing with regularity for mutual benefit. The linkages include illegal trafficking of arms, drugs and human beings as well as money laundering. Terrorist groups need arms and money, organised crime needs couriers who can smuggle drugs, arms and human beings across the countries and regions.
Tactical to strategic connections include logistical support and even some ideological overlap. It may be impossible to destroy the logistical network supporting terrorist groups without striking major blows at supporting criminal networks. Criminal and terrorist organisations have been known to collaborate in international operations, and money earned from drug trafficking supports both criminal and terrorist activity. Emulating terrorist groups criminal groups can turn ideological over time.
As law enforcement dries up revenue streams, the lines are blurred between various militant groups, as also between ideology-driven militants and common criminals. Illicit operations render militant cells more vulnerable to detection. The more staunchly ideological jihadists use drugs trade as a means to an end, rather than an end in itself, making them less ambitious and probably more capable of evading law enforcement agencies (LEAs).
Terrorist organisations can include common criminals with special skills or access to networks or criminal opportunities. With increased criminal activity replacing ideology, profit and greed are the main motivation for operations of some terrorist groups.
With the world economy becoming increasingly interdependent, international financial markets are becoming vulnerable. Laundering billions of dollars in organised crime money worsens national debt problems as tax revenues to the exchequer are lost.
Businesses around the world are frequent targets of extortion, robberies, threats and murder. Security costs for these businesses (especially physical protection, extra protection of cargo, and forced payments to gangsters for "protection") often consume more than 30% of profits. The fear discourages legitimate businesses (foreign and domestic) from entering the market.
Criminals and terrorists easily cross boundaries between countries, especially organised groups engaged in human trafficking. Members of organised criminal groups and terrorist organisations seek to evade detection, arrest and punishment by operating across international borders, taking due advantage of the frequent reluctance of law enforcement authorities to engage in complicated and expensive transnational investigations and prosecutions.
The weakness in effectively addressing these new threats by any one state translates into an overall weakness of criminal justice cooperation in the international regime. Convergence and compatibility of national legislation are required to introduce complex procedural reforms, and to develop a much greater investigation and prosecution capacity at the national level, as well as strengthening capacity for cooperation at the international level.
In addition to military cooperation to interdict terrorists, much more attention needs to be paid to promoting the rule of law, combating corruption and improving judicial proceedings in areas where terrorists have taken refuge. Remedial measures include improving police capability to locate and disrupt criminal networks. International cooperation on extradition laws need strengthening so that criminals cannot avoid arrest by fleeing the country.
The "Universal Conventions against Terrorism" as well as the "UN Conventions against transnational organised crime and against corruption" provide a strong basis for legal cooperation and often suggest areas and disciplines for development as part of a national capacity for effective investigation and prosecution of these crimes (abridged version of presentation made as guest speaker at a seminar in New Delhi on Oct 26).
Ikram Sehgal is an eminent Pakistani political analyst and columnist.
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