Jane's Intelligence Review - Serious and Organised Crime

Serious and Organised Crime

*Export dependent - Georgian gangs strengthen Russian presence
On 13 October 2009 a large crowd gathered for the funeral in Moscow of one of the most notorious Russian criminals of recent times. Vyacheslav...
12-Mar-2010

*Welcome to the jungle - Mexican drug cartels move into Colombia
A series of arrests in February highlighted the growing links between Colombian and Mexican drug cartels. Marking the culmination of the two-year Operation Fronteras (Borders),...
08-Mar-2010

*Sect in the city - Criminal group seeks to expand in Kenya
The Mungiki is a largely clandestine, cult-like organisation. It emerged in the late 1980s as a mass youth movement designed to protect and promote the...
02-Feb-2010

*Eastern empire - Criminals infiltrate Russia's Far East
The very characteristics that make Russia such a congenial breeding ground for its own criminals - including high levels of official corruption, weak judicial institutions,...
22-Jan-2010

*Generational shift - Colombia's evolving drug cartel
The capture of suspected drug trafficker John Jairo Anacona Bedoya, alias 'Ghost' in Bogotá, in early October highlighted the growing threat posed by one of...
29-Dec-2009

*New tricks - Examining anti-piracy tactics
Piracy may be an age-old problem for the shipping industry, but brand new solutions are needed to combat it. This is the commercial consensus that...
18-Dec-2009

*Cycles of violence - Australia's outlaw motorcycle gangs
An airport terminal in Sydney was perhaps an unlikely battleground for a fierce battle between rival criminal gangs. Yet this is what happened on 22...
01-Dec-2009

*Networking sites - Criminal group expands across the Balkans
A rash of arrests in the Balkans in 2009 has drawn attention to the presence of a large-scale trafficking group operating throughout the region. In...
01-Dec-2009

*Capital punishment - Japan's yakuza vie for control of Tokyo
Although Japan's economy may now be exiting recession, the country's criminal groups are continuing to suffer from the impact of falling criminal revenues, leading them...
09-Nov-2009

*Route of the problem - Trafficking and addiction threaten Russia
In early October, Viktor Ivanov, head of the Federal Narcotics Control Service (Federalnaya sluzhba narkokontrolya Rossii: FSNK), accused the United States's counter-narcotic policy in Afghanistan...
23-Oct-2009

*Family business - La Familia: Mexico's most violent criminals
The turf warfare that has beset Mexico's major drug cartels since the government-led security crackdown of late 2006 has benefited one emerging cartel: La Familia...
06-Oct-2009

*Human behaviour - Trafficking increases in Central Asia
Although Central Asia only represents approximately 1.5 per cent of the world's total migrant population, the region's economies are heavily influenced by migrant workers. Illegal...
01-Oct-2009

*Black gold trade - Oil theft increases in Nigeria
Decades of oil production have generated hundreds of billions of dollars in revenues but have left a legacy of social disharmony, economic underdevelopment and environmental...
17-Sep-2009

*Behind the scenes - Uralmash gang retreats into the shadows
In February 2006, Major General Alexander Yelin, deputy head of Russia's Organised Crime Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Ministerstvo vnutrennykh del: MVD), claimed...
01-Sep-2009

*Bad company - South Asia's regional criminal organisation
Group profile Group name D-Company Level of threat High Status Active Date of founding During the 1975...
06-Aug-2009

*Hard times - Organised crime and the financial crisis
Organised crime is a business like any other. It depends largely on the fate of the legitimate economy, which determines everything from how much people...
24-Jul-2009

*Hornets' nest - Camp 5: Nigeria's strongest militant base
Unrest in the Niger Delta has become a constant of life in Nigeria. However, the hijacking in May of two vessels carrying valuable petroleum products...
16-Jul-2009

*On dry land - The onshore drivers of piracy
The surge of pirate attacks off the Horn of Africa has focused greater international attention on the perennial problem of maritime piracy. According to International...
03-Jul-2009

*Fourth column - Italy keeps a rein on smallest mafia group
While Italy's three main mafia groups, the Costa Nostra (Sicily), the Camorra (Campania) and the 'Ndrangheta (Calabria), are frequently the focus of media and police...
16-Jun-2009

Blood in the water - Loan sharks benefit from the economic crisis
Loan sharking has always been a feature of the illegal financial market, but the combination of the ongoing credit crisis and the seasonal impact of...
26-May-2009

*Held to ransom - Kidnapping trends in Latin America
Kidnapping in Latin America is one of the most popular crimes, being carried out both by major criminal organisations and by low-level groups and targeting...
11-May-2009

*Profit and loss - Russian crime network faces business strain
Group profile Group name Tambov, Tambovskaya Level of threat High Status Active Date of founding 1988 Group type Decentralised network While Russian organised crime ...
27-Apr-2009

*Back from the dead - New criminal groups emerge in Colombia
When Daniel Rendón Herrera, alias 'Don Mario', was discovered by Colombian police crouching under a palm tree in a rural region in the northwestern province...
17-Apr-2009

The oldest trade - Sex trafficking into the US
The United States' position as the world's largest economy means that it has long been a destination for human traffickers keen to exploit the various...
23-Mar-2009

*Chasing shadows - Philippine military hunts mystery criminal group
Differentiating perpetrators of violence in Mindanao is difficult given the number of criminal actors in the area. Against the backdrop of Islamist insurgent groups regularly...
05-Mar-2009

*Caught in the web - Brazil continues to be a centre of cybercrime
With criminals increasingly turning to cybercrime as a relatively low-cost, risk-free source of financial gain, Brazil has become established as one of its main global...
23-Feb-2009

*Safety net - Cybercriminals adapt to new security measures
On 16 September 2008, a cybercriminal using the nickname Master Splyntr announced he was closing a forum on the website www.darkmarket.ws, saying: "Recent events have...
09-Feb-2009

*A to Z of crime - Mexico's Zetas expand operations
The Zetas is the first criminal organisation in the Americas to have been formed by former military personnel and defectors from a regular army. Mexico's...
30-Jan-2009

*Piracy's rising tide - Somali piracy develops and diversifies
The alleged payment of a USD3 million ransom and the subsequent release of the Saudi-owned MV Sirius Star on 9 January is the latest ...
16-Jan-2009

*Cocaine coasts - Venezuela and West Africa's drugs axis
A light aircraft registered in Venezuela and bearing Red Cross insignia landed on 3 July 2008 at an unlit runway at Lungi International Airport near...
02-Jan-2009

*Blood flowers - Afghanistan's opium industry remains robust
Despite efforts by international and Afghan forces to crack down on poppy cultivation, the illegal trade remains a major sector of Afghanistan's economy and a...
11-Dec-2008

*Kill or cure - The proliferation of counterfeit medicines
Drugs and pharmaceuticals counterfeiting has increased as a proportion of counterfeit goods. Interpol's Operation Storm, carried out between April and September 2008, co-ordinated more than...
05-Dec-2008

*Prison break - Mexican gang moves operations outside US jails
The Mexican Mafia is the oldest prison gang in the United States. Originally it consisted of young Mexican-American gang members, who organised in a Californian...
02-Dec-2008

*The Italian connection - Calabrian mafia's power base has expanded
Of Italy's four major mafia-like organisations, the 'Ndrangheta is the least well known, despite its global reach and involvement in a wide variety of criminal...
29-Oct-2008

*Gear shift - Drivers of criminal change in Bulgaria
Vehicle theft has been a staple of European crime for decades, encouraged by the different legislation and availability between markets in Western Europe and Soviet-dominated...
27-Oct-2008

intelligence review