The Merger: The International Conglomerate of Organized Crime - Softcover

Robinson, Jeffrey

3.79

58 ratings by Goodreads

9781585672486: The Merger: The International Conglomerate of Organized Crime

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1585672483 ISBN 13: 9781585672486

Publisher: Overlook Books, 2002

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Offers an inside account of the international network of crime rings, including the Sicilian Mafiosi and the Chinese Triads, pinpointing the factors that led to global crime cartels and noting how the internet has changed the face of crime. Reprint.

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Review:

When telecommunications companies merge, the news is immediately analyzed by the media and government agencies. Owners of the companies' stock immediately vote on the wisdom of the move by buying or selling. But when criminal organizations merge and make their operations global, it takes years for law enforcement to figure out what happened, who was involved, and what the implications are. Ever since Italian-American mobster Lucky Luciano linked Mafia families in Sicily and the U.S., crime cartels have been finding ways to expand their operations across national borders, making those countries' policemen play an extended game of catch-up. Jeffrey Robinson is an authority on international crime, especially money laundering, and his book The Merger sometimes reads like a crime novel. It seems strange to imagine that Mexican drug traffickers would be working closely with Thai postal workers; that a billion dollars a month in drug money would be laundered from Russian gangs through Greek Cypriots and then moved on to respectable financial centers such as London and New York; that Colombian drug cartels would get kerosene--an important ingredient for making cocaine--from Turkmenistan by way of Argentina; that Eastern European criminals would claim to be Jewish so they could get Israeli passports and launder money in the Holy Land. And that's just for-profit criminality--politically and religiously motivated crime has long been international and is rapidly branching out into cyberterrorism.

Robinson concludes with a note that international drug trafficking is growing so fast it now represents 2 percent of the world's economy. However, while criminal organizations think globally, Robinson writes, most law enforcement is set up to act locally. Nations can't decide how to deal with the problem because none wants to be the first to sacrifice national sovereignty for the greater purpose of slowing crime. If this book doesn't keep you up at night, or at least raise some serious goose flesh, you're made of pretty stern stuff. --Lou Schuler

From the Inside Flap:

There was a time when crime was local and gang members killed each other in turf wars. Not any more. In today?s economy, virtually any business, including the illicit ones, can benefit by expanding into new markets, by drawing upon resources that were previously inaccessible, and by exploiting the latest technology to create organizational efficiencies. Like their colleagues in other industries, crime syndicates are also coming to terms with the effects of globalization. The benefits of co-operation are obvious.

Today, the Russians are in business with the Mafia running fraudulent fuel-tax scams and illegal gambling, and establishing drug distribution networks in the U.S. and Canada. The Russians have also gone into business with the Colombians to deal cocaine and arms along the eastern seaboard. In turn, the Colombians have worked out agreements with the Italians to smuggle cocaine into Europe and North America and to launder drug money. In both cases, Canada is a primary market. For such sophisticated criminal organizations it is also the figurative equivalent of a candy store.

In the course of his research, Jeffrey Robinson developed contacts in police organizations all over the world ? not least among the RCMP. These same sources have given him profound insight into the merging of criminal capabilities that now poses a frightening challenge to law enforcement agencies all over the world. Canadians will be shocked to discover the extent to which some of their fellow citizens are involved.

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