Thieves' World: The Threat of the New Global Network of Organized Crime - Hardcover

Sterling, Claire

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0671749978 ISBN 13: 9780671749972

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 1994

Synopsis

A chilling analysis of international organized crime in the aftermath of the recent political restructuring worldwide

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

An authoritative study by journalist Sterling (Octopus, 1989) of the breathtaking power and influence accumulated by modern organized crime around the world. Sterling traveled intensively and received cooperation at the highest levels in seeking to discover the extraordinary inroads made by organized crime, particularly in the aftermath of the breakup of the Soviet Union. At the start of the 1990s, she notes, the ``myth still prevailed that only Italy and the United States offered a natural habitat for the Mafia, and for indeed all organized crime.'' She quotes highly reliable estimates that the drug traffic alone exceeds half a trillion dollars a year, making it the world's second biggest moneymaker after the arms traffic, in which organized crime is also involved. In June 1990, at the insistence of German Chancellor Kohl, the prime ministers of the European Community set aside two hours to discuss means by which a European Community without boundaries would deal with the issue. These problems have been compounded by the permeability of borders outside the Community. As a Polish Interior spokesman noted, ``in effect, we have no borders.'' But the biggest single new source of crime has been in Russia. The Russian Interior Ministry warned in 1991 that organized crime would soon control 30%40% of the country's GNP. President Yeltsin himself estimated that by the end of 1992 ``nearly two-thirds of Russia's commercial structure had ties to the growing criminal world.'' Russia, with no law permitting access to bank accounts, no mechanism for controlling private banks, no sanctions for money laundering, no inspectors to check the source of foreign capital, no tax audits, and no legal provisions against organized crime is, says Sterling, almost helpless before the onslaught. While some of her material is badly organized and repetitive, and some, as Sterling herself concedes, ``seemingly unbelievable,'' this book represents the most comprehensive insight so far into a menace that has powerful political as well as legal implications. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly:

Sterling already had a controversial reputation as an expert on international crime with books like Octopus and The Terror Network , but this bombshell is her most terrifying and significant work. Here she shows how the Sicilian and American Mafias, Colombian drug cartels, Chinese Triads and Japanese Yakuza have joined with Russian organized crime to mount a full-scale attack on all of Europe and Russia to plunder both--and are succeeding. This consortium manipulates national currencies, buys into legitimate businesses and corrupts government officials at all levels. The nations of Western Europe, according to Sterling, are so concerned with individual liberties that a huge body of law makes it impossible for them to fight organized crime effectively, while the political and economic chaos in Eastern Europe and the former U.S.S.R. has made these areas prey for worldwide gangsterism. Nothing will stop this increasing danger, Sterling warns, except close international cooperation and quick action. First serial to the New Republic.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0671749978
• ISBN 13: 9780671749972
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288