WHY IS IT SO HARD TO SUCCESSFULLY FIGHT ORGANISED CRIMINAL

GROUPS?

The question of ‘why is it so hard to successfully fight organised criminal

groups’ is currently a global concern that has received a lot of

attention over the years. Organised criminal groups have grown

so immense/vast and are rooted in many nations. This essay

will examine some theories such as Alien Conspiracy Theory,

Deterrence Theory, Psychological Traits and Criminality

Theory, Deviance Theory, will be examined in other to explain

why it is hard to tackle organised criminal groups. It cannot

be denied that the effects and challenges allied to organised

crime have become more complex and tactical in recent times.

The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized

Crime (General Assembly resolution 55/25, annex I) defines an

organized criminal group as “a structured group, committing

serious crimes for profit” (UNODC 2004). Organised crime

undermines statehood and democratic governance through

corruption, influencing of government officials and looting.

However, all strategies put in place to counter organised

criminal groups and their activities at both local and

international level have seemed futile over the years. So

therefore, various scholars argue that that there are

different reasons why it’s hard to successfully fight

organised criminal groups, some of which are transnationalism,

weak governance, technological advancement, business

frontiers, need for survival, complex networks, corruption,

lack of cooperation, weak judicial system, low man power are

1

reasons why it is so hard to successfully fight organised

criminal groups; which will be fully explained in the essay.

Holmes (2007) argues that it is not only a fact that organised

criminal groups are now transnational; its transnational

nature also makes it hard to fight and tackle. It has also had

a huge negative impact on the international community,

affecting the lives of people in the community and claiming

the lives of a lot of innocent people. For instance, the

Mexican drug war which was documented to have claimed the

lives of over 800 innocent people with no criminal links.

According to Behrens and Lewerenz (2013) ‘tackling organized

crime in a sustainable manner requires the development and

implementation of intelligent, multidimensional approaches to

untangle networks and address the incentive structures and

enabling factors of the various business models’ (Behrens and

Lewrenz 2013).

In addition, Behrens and Lewerenz (2013) argue that ‘while

transnational cooperation of criminal networks is increasing

and adapting, government and governance responses remain too

static and stuck within the confines of national borders.

International and transnational cooperation in curbing

organized crime is still in its infancy’ (Behrens and Lawrenz

2013). Scherrer (2009) also maintains that the reason why it

is hard to curb organised criminal groups is because of its

transnational nature. According to the Routledge Handbook of

Transnational Organised Crime (2012) ‘transnational organized crime

crosses borders, challenges states, exploits individuals,

pursues profit, wrecks economies, destroys civil society, and2

ultimately weakens global democracy. It is a phenomenon that

is all too often misunderstood and misrepresented’ (Allum and

Gilmour 2012) The handbook implies that the government plays a

big role in letting these groups grow and expand their

horizons across continents. According to Dorn (2009)

‘transnational crime is now recognized as a pressing global

problem. With diminishing barriers of language, communication,

information, technology transfer and mobility and with the

ever-increasing globalization of the economy, there has been a

growing transnational character of crime (including organized,

financial, immigration, computer and sex-related criminality)’

(Dorn 2009). However, Dorn (2009) posits that due to

international laws and sovereignty, the ability to fight

transnational crime is constrained. Notwithstanding, Dorn

(2009) forgets to recognise the existence of international

organizations, conventions and treaties that are being signed

by nations to promote nexus in other to fight crime. Ipso

facto, he fails to recognise that even with international laws

and sovereignty, organised crime is a global challenge and is

faced by many nations, there are laws provide to ensure

alliances between nations to fight organised crime.

Nevertheless, some theories set out to explain why the curbing

or organised criminal groups seem almost impossible to

eliminate. One of the most common and discussed theory is The

Alien Conspiracy Theory. This theory posits that the impact of the

international society is responsible for the growth of

organized criminal activities in various countries of the

world where the phenomenon is evident. The alien conspiracy

3

theory also postulates that organised criminal activities

which became popular in the 1860’s in Sicily gave the

foundation for the act to spread to the rest of the world.

According to Allum (2003), Sicilian immigrants are often

blamed for transnational nature of organised crime. However,

Lyman and Potter (2007) argue that this theory has been

disapproved by many scholars as it only increases racial

profiling. They posit that despite the holes and criticisms of

this theory, it has received great acknowledgment over the

years by public officials, researchers and law enforcement

organizations. Lyman and Potter (2007) explain that the only

reason why the theory has gained ground is because it creates

an excuse for the inability of law enforcement agency to

eliminate organised criminal groups. They maintain that ‘the

federal enforcement organizations have self-servicing reasons

to promulgate this theory: it explains their inability to

eliminate organised crime, it disguises the role of political

and business corruption in organised crime, and it provide

fertile ground for new resource, powers and bureaucratic

expansion’ (Lyman and Potter 2007).

Some scholars are of the view that the Alien Conspiracy theory only

creates an excuse for incompetence of major organisations to

successfully fight organised criminal groups. Wright (2006)

postulates that why organised crime and groups are hard to

fight and tackle is because the justice system isn’t hard

enough on the criminals. The Deterrence Theory further explains

that crime prevention and deterrence is grounded on the

hypothesis that criminals and prospective criminals will think

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twice before they partake in a life of crime. This can however

only be attained if the justice system is not soft on

organised criminal activities. This will also go a long way in

decreasing the worldwide growth of organised criminal

activities. Nevertheless, the extent to which the deterrence

theory is effective and efficient is debatable due to

empirical evidence. Some scholars suggest that it can be

effective; nonetheless, the stiff resistance to crime fighting

has never shown devaluation is such crime. Other scholars like

Felia (2012) argue that because most of these criminal cases

are committed by a small group, the cases are handed in a

local court, in which most local courts embrace treatment and

not punishment. So therefore, criminals are more prepared to

risk the possibility of getting apprehended. For example,

Sahara Reporters (2014) accounted for the case on a Nigerian

man that was sentenced to death for drug trafficking in

Malaysia. However, during the trial, it was constantly pointed

out by the defence that such punishment (Death Penalty) has

never been given for this offence. Nevertheless, the sentence

was Death, and the reason given by the state is ‘So that we

prevent this type of acts from reoccurring’ (Sahara Reporters

2014)

The Theory of Psychological Trait and Criminality argues that there is a

relationship between some specific psychological traits that

are linked to criminal behaviours. This theory sets out to

explain that the reason it is so hard to fight organised crime

is because there some individuals, one too many, that have

some certain psychological traits that makes them irresistible

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to acts of crime. Sociopathic and psychopathic personalities

have been identified by a biopsychology research as one of the

most dangerous personality types (Finklea 2010). For example,

Institute for Psychological Sciences (2010) carried a research

on criminals in the Pennsylvanian Prisons and discovered that

78% of the study group were psychopaths and 12% were

sociopaths. So therefore, as long as there are people with

this trait, there will always be criminals. The only way to

fight crime is to eliminate anyone with this trait, which is

quite unrealistic and impossible.

Another theory coined to explain the reason why it has proven

so hard to successfully fight organised crime and criminal

groups over the years is The Cultural Deviance Theory which assumes

that people who live in a slum have more tendency to violate

the law. It also explains that people from the same culture

have the tendency to involve themselves in the same kind of

crime. According to Castells (2010), this is the reason why

the Mafia spread round Italy. This theory goes further to

argue that people from the lower class have the

characteristics of being tough, taking care of what is theirs

and surviving. Taking into account, also that the poverty

level around the world is rising, due to various inflation and

recessions. So more people are likely to carry out acts of

crime and get involved with organise criminal groups. For

example, the economic recession of 2008 with hit Europe hard

and led to the euro crises of 2010. During this period, people

were arrested for using protests on the economic issues to

break into stores and commit high cases of theft and robbery.

6

Another example is the student riot of 2009 which spread from

Liverpool to London, here; different forms of organized crime

were at play (Guardian 2010). According to the Cultural

Deviance Theory, the rise out poverty and slumps is a major

reason why it will be difficult to fight organised crime. In

other words, as long as poverty is world problem, so will

organised crime be.

Moving past theoretical analysis, some scholars have come up

with different reasons why tackling organised crime is so

unsuccessful. Behrens and Lewerenz (2013) posit that there are

four reasons why it is hard to fight organised criminal

groups. Frist, weak governance and statehood structures can be

said to be the number one reason why organised crime is

difficult to curb. To successfully attack organised crime, it

must be done from a local level and places where organised

crime floods the streets tend to have a weak government.

Second, the limited scope of international cooperation. They

argue that despite the existence of international cooperation,

they lack the skills in curbing organised crime. Third, there

is complex money laundering policies that makes combating

organised crime hard, more policies and financial intelligence

are needed. Finally, the ‘War on Drugs’ has been unproductive in

addressing organisational crime. They believe that the United

Nations isn’t living up to its full potential in regulating

the mechanisms for drugs. They believe that if all these

problems can be addressed, it will be easier to curb organised

crime.

7

Gastrow (2013) disagrees with Behrens and Lewerenz. He

believes that a weak government and statehood structure is not

the reason why fighting organised crime seems hard. He posits

that it is lack of effective global cooperation that makes it

impossible to limit organised crime. He claims that ‘the

failure of governments to cooperate effectively regionally and

globally to develop creative new strategies that counter

transnational organized crime is probably the most important

contributor to the relative ease with which organized crime

groups operate across borders and are rapidly gaining ground’

(Gastrow 2013). There are different agencies set out to fight

the war on drugs and crime. Some of which are United Nations

Office on Drugs and crime (United Nations), Drugs Enforcement

Agency (USA), National Agency for Food and Drug Administration

and Control (Nigeria), National Anti-Drug Strategy (Canada),

National Crime Agency (United Kingdom), Organised Crime Task

Force (Northern Ireland) to mention a few. The question that

comes to mind now is that why it is hard even with all these

agencies in full operation, to fight organised crime.

According to Naim (2006) the existence of these agencies

doesn’t necessarily mean they live up to potential. The local

agencies refuse to share information with international

agencies and Vis a vis. Naim (2006) posits that the lack of

cooperation is what makes it hard to fight organised crime.

She however blames it on the competitive nature of

organisations to claim credit for being effective in its

cause.

8

Gastrow (2013) also argues that technological developments

have increased the advancement of criminal groups all over the

world. With rapid technological advancement, these groups have

advanced and so have their mean and methods which have become

more complex over the years. For example, when the movie ‘The

Interview’ which was based on North Korean Dictator, Kin Jun

Un, was to be realised by Sony; it was considered to be

offensive by some North Koreans that eventually hacked into

Sony’s Data Base. This is considered a criminal activity which

also caused diplomatic issues with North Korea and the United

States of America. Saini, Rao and Panda (2012) argue that

indeed technological advances have made it difficult for

government agencies to keep up with the activities of

organised criminal groups. With the wave of technology and the

internet, communication routs are more complicated and most

activities cannot be detected. He goes further to argue that

technology has given organised criminal groups the ability to

travel with fake identities, hide assets, siphoned money into

foreign and international banks, smuggling drugs through means

that can’t be detected, amongst many other activities. He

posits that through technological means organised criminal

groups have grown so large, across many boarders that so many

people are involved in their activities which is another

reason why it hard to track down key players.

Contrariwise, Holmes (2007) is of the opinion that

technological advancement is not the biggest challenge when it

comes to tackling organised criminal groups as government

agencies are highly equipped and advanced as well. He is of

9

the view that one of the major reasons is the fact that most

organised groups use business frontiers to cover up the money

they gain and to loot to other countries. Most criminal lords

have been suspected on different occasions to own and invest

in large businesses. For example National Crime Agency (NCA)

in 2014, provides data businesses in the United Kingdom that

have been discovered to not only be a front for organised

crime but also a measure for recruiting new members. It has

also been suspected that most cartels use the money they get

from usury and drug trafficking to equally start up legal

businesses so that they are not suspected for being associated

with criminal groups. He also points out that the involvement

of financial institution in organised crime makes it hard to

restrict these criminal groups. The Labour’s Policy Review

(2014) posits that in the last summer, it was discovered that

for years banks some banks in London have been rigging the

London interbank offered rate (LIBOR) The United States

Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FSA worked together in

investigating this matter. This is just one or several

instances that have ended up as dead ends in tackling

organised crime.

According to the UNIOGBIS (2013) report, some localities tend

to survive solely on organised criminal activities. Guinea-

Bissau which is known to be a nation stricken with the

activities of criminal activities currently floods with drug

trafficking. According to the report, at a national level,

there are a number of reasons that give organised criminal

groups longevity in such areas. In the case of Guinea-Bissau,

10

there are four major reasons. First, the geography of the

country makes it easily accessible to carry out activities. It

is located between Latin America and Europe and it also has

over 90 islands that can be used as storage facilities.

Second, According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and

Crime (2004), Guinea-Bissau is considered a failing state that

has proved futile in providing social amenities for its

citizens and also providing total boarder and sea protections.

Third, due to the failure of the state there is an endemic

state of poverty sweeping across the locals of the country. It

is one of the poorest countries ranked at 164 out of 169

countries in the Human Development Index. Lastly, the nature

of a failed state and poverty has led to a serious lack of

employment opportunities. According to the report, ‘these

fertile conditions have in turn further adverse impact at the

governance and socio-economic levels (drug-driven economy,

increase of criminality and local consumption), thus creating

a structural ‘drug trap’. The number of drug addicts (mainly

misusing cannabis products and cocaine/crack) is growing. This

phenomenon already has a negative impact on the society where

even rudimentary facilities and professionals in drug demand

reduction are missing’ (UNIOGBIS 2013). However, these four

reasons give a platform in explaining why organised crime has

grown in Guinea-Bissau. Further stating that organised crime

is a means of survival for such nation among many others that

are involved in organised criminal activities. Therefore, how

can organized crime be fought, when it is a means of survival

11

for most families and even contributes most part of the

revenue to the nations as a whole?

The Labour’s Policy Review (2014) admitted that the

transnational nature of criminal groups has led to a big twine

of networks that are almost impossible to follow. Shelly

(2003) posited that it is hard to keep track of the activities

of a criminal groups. He further explains that these networks

are the only barriers that make it hard to successfully

understand the measure in which criminal groups follow to

carry out their activities. He also points out that when

following these networks, sometimes, law enforcement agencies

come across links that lead right back to government

officials. According to Godson (2003) also points out that

‘when political establishment knowingly and regularly does

business with gang leaders, or when professional criminals are

actually elected to power, as has happened in Sicily and

Taiwan, the distinction (between the political establishment

and the criminal underworld) is less straightforward. The

lines between the two sets of players become less distinctive;

and sometimes the political and the criminal merge’ (Godson

2003). In the instance that these events take place, , cases

are being tosses aside due to the officials involved. However,

he failed to account for justice system that has brought to

justice, high top government officials that were involved with

l organised crime. For instance, Plywaczewsky (2004) sights

the case of Polish judge and some public persecutors from

Torun which were found to be part of a club organised by

criminals and eventually the judge was found to be guilty of

12

ruling cases in favour of the criminals, a crime he was later

brought justice for.

Also, the Council on Foreign Relations (2010) in a report

posits that one of the reasons it is so hard to fight

organised criminal groups is that nations have failed to abide

by the decisions agreed on in conventions held to tackle

organised crime globally. In fighting transnational organised

crime in the UN convention on transnational organised crime

(UNTOC) in 2000 that held in Italy concluded on a number of

treaties. However, since the conference in 2000, the treaty

lacks an implementation mechanism that will make sure that

countries abide to the treaties and sanction countries that

don’t adhere to the treaty. According to Costa (2012), the

body in charge of making sure countries implement this treaty

is the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime; however, it

is highly funded by voluntary contributors and suffers from

funding deficiency and understaffing.

The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime has been set up

by the United Nations to wage war against transnational

organised crime. But on different occasions it has been

faulted for having low manpower. Saini, Rao and Panda (2012)

point out that this is a reason why it is hard to successfully

fight organised crime is the low man force. If the world is to

successfully put an end to organised crime, there must be a

lot of people fighting it because of the transnational nature

of these groups. However, the low manpower is seen as a major

setback for the UNODC in successfully fighting these organised

criminal groups. 13

Furthermore, it is important to understand the links between

organised crime and corruption. According to Allum and Gilmour

(2012), corrupt politicians that safeguard organised criminal

groups and its members from going into trial is a major issue

all over the world today. They go further to analyse that

politicians in Italy for example, serve as an midway between

the organised criminal groups and the judiciary, many

literatures provide empirical evidence of organised crime’s

influence on the judiciary. Allum (2003) posited that the

constant representation of criminal organisations in

democratic mechanisms makes it impossible to successfully

follow the trial of criminal groups. Votes are rigged with

violence coaxed out of citizens in altercation for diverse

kinds if inducements. This is called the Iron Triangle by Porta

and Vannucci (1999). The question that comes to mind is ‘how is it

possible for members of criminal groups to ascertain seats in government

positions?’ According to Shelley (2003) argued that nations that

have various criminal groups and are going through the

transition to democracy, tend to have representative or

criminal groups assume vital governmental positions through

the use of force. This allows for criminal groups to assume

political power and makes the chase to curb them futile. In an

interview with Carmen Muñoz Quesada, Member of Parliament,

Costa Rica (2013) she stated that ‘At the political level,

democracy itself is directly affected. This could mean, at

municipal level, that for example a city council is obedient

to drug dealers, perhaps when it comes to combating their

14

operations with political means and passing appropriate laws’

(International Expert Conference 2013).

Due to the corruption of the political systems, it cannot be

distant to point out that the judicial system has been

affected by the corruption. Not only that, the internal police

force can be faulted as a reason as to why it is hard to

successfully fight organised crime. It is without doubt that

police corruption is quite thorough but hardly focuses on

organised crime. Karklins (2005) lists that there are four key

reasons why criminal corrupt or need the police. First,

because criminal organisations know that most police officers

are under paid, they give them bribes in exchange for turning

a blind eye to complain and making arrests. Second, for the

protection of illegal activities carried out by these groups.

He posits that the longevity of organised criminal groups can

only be sustained with the help of executive protection.

Third, organised criminal groups corrupt the police so that

when they get caught by the system, they have someone inside

the system that can help fix their mistakes. They also need a

fixer so that when organised criminal groups are being

investigated, they can throw of the investigators of track.

Fourth, because of the power that the police have, they are

used by these groups to carry out serious activities without

being detected. Karklins (2005) state that because of the

corruption of the police, the investigation and chase of these

groups end up being futile and purposeless.

Additionally, Casey (2008) points out that apart from

corruption among the political leaders, most countries that15

are involved in serious activities of organised crime and are

plagued with these criminal groups are underdeveloped or

developing. In other words, she is of the view that reason it

is so hard to fight organised crime is the fact that amongst

other threats, organised crime is not considered as a major

threat like terrorism and climate change in some parts of the

world. In an interview conducted by Aljezeera (2012) the

Malaysian Minister of Defence Hishammuddin Hussein was quoted

for saying that the most difficult threat that faces the

global society today is terrorism and climate change. However,

he forgets to point out the significant role organised crime

plays in the world today. According to UNODC (2013) most third

world nations that suffer from the reek of organised crime

have other issues such as poverty, weak states, genocides,

internal violence, poor health systems, hunger, low

educational levels, unemployment, and many more issues that

supersede organised crime. So it’s not that they turn a blind

eye to criminal activities, it is that they have more pressing

issues to deal with than organised crime and criminal groups.

In other words, the motive and will to curb organised criminal

groups doesn’t exist in most underdeveloped or developing

nations.

In conclusion, many theories and facts have been examined and

analysed as possible reasons why it is so hard to successfully

fight organised criminal groups. However, it cannot be denied

that the transnational nature of these groups pose the most

difficulty challenged faced by international organisations in

curbing and successfully fighting these criminal groups. It is

16

important first, nations can consider organised crime a

serious threat just like terrorism and climate change as it

has ties with corruption, secondly, nation states and

organisations must build up a strong alliance and synergy. It

will also be helpful for States and organisations to gain the

trust of locals so that an information network can be

established. In other words, organised crime has already eaten

deeply into the roots of the society and it is difficult to

curb. The only alternative will be for international and local

agencies to reduce the scourge of organised crime.

17

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