MODULE: COMPARATIVE MODELS IN POLICING

CHAPTER IV.
TRANSNATIONAL ORGANIZED CRIME

Objectives: At the end of this chapter,students should be able to:

Define the Transnational Organized Crime.
Difference between Human Trafficking and Human Smuggling.
Explain the stages of money laundering.

Transnational organized crime involves the planning and execution of illicit

business ventures by groups or networks of individuals working in more than
one country. These criminal groups use systematic violence and corruption to
achieve their goal. Crimes commonly include money laundering; human
smuggling; cybercrime; and trafficking of humans, drugs, weapons,
endangered species, body parts, or nuclear material.
Transnational crime ring activities weaken economies and financial systems
and undermine democracy. These networks often prey on governments that
are not powerful enough to oppose them, prospering on illegal activities, such
as drug trafficking that bring them immense profits. In carrying out illegal
activities, they upset the peace and stability of nations worldwide, often using
bribery, violence, or terror to achieve their goals.

Major Transnational Organized Crime Groups

Transnational crime often operate in well-organized groups, intentionally
united to carry out illegal actions. Groups typically involve certain hierarchies
and are headed by a powerful leader. These transnational organized crime
groups work to make a profit through illegal activities. Because groups operate
internationally, their activity is a threat to global security, often weakening
governmental institutions or destroying legitimate business endeavors.

Well-known organized crime groups include:

Russian Mafia.
Around 200 Russian groups that operate in nearly 60 countries worldwide.
They have been involved in racketeering, fraud, tax evasion, gambling, drug
trafficking, ransom, robbery and murder.
La Cosa Nostra.
Known as the Italian or Italian-American mafia. The most prominent organized
crime group in the world from the 1920’s to the 1990’s. They have been
involved in violence, arson, bombings, torture, sharking, gambling, drug
trafficking, health insurance fraud, and political and judicial corruption.
Yakuza
Japanese criminal group. Often involved in multinational criminals activities,
including human trafficking, gambling, prostitution, and undermining licit
businesses.
FukChing.
Chinese organized group in the United States. They have been involved in
smuggling, street violence, and human trafficking.
Triads.

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Underground criminal societies based in Hong Kong. They control secret
markets and bus routes and are often involved in money laundering and drug
trafficking.
Heijin
Taiwanese gangsters who are often executives in large corporations. They are
often involved in white collar crimes, such as illegal stock trading and bribery,
and sometimes run for public office.
Jao Pho.
Organized crime group in Thailand. They are often involved in illegal political
and business activity.
Red Wa.
Gangsters from Thailand. They are involved in manufacturing and trafficking
methamphetamine.

Human Trafficking is the illegal in human beings for the purposes of

commercial sexual exploitation or forced
labor: a modern-day form of slavery. It is
the fastest growing criminal industry in the
world, and tied with the illegal arms industry
as the second largest, after the drug, trade.
Human Trafficking is a crime against
humanity. It further defined as an act of
recruiting, transporting, transferring,
harboring or receiving a person through a
use of force, coercion or other means, for
the purpose of exploiting them. Every year, thousands of men, women and
children fall into the hands of traffickers, in their own countries and abroad.
Every country in the world is affected by trafficking, whether as a country of
origin, tansit or destination for victims. UNODC, as guardian of the United
Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) and the
Protocols thereto, assists States in their efforts to implement the Protocol to
Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Person (Trafficking in Persons
Protocol)

Elements of Human Trafficking

On the basis of the definition given in the trafficking in persons protocol, t is
evident that trafficking in persons has three constituent elements;
The Act (What is done) Recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or
receipt of persons The Means (How it is done)
Threat or use of force, coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power
or vulnerability, or giving payments or benefits to a person in control of the
victim.
The Purpose (Why it is done)
For the purpose of exploitation, which include exploiting the prostitution of
others, sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery or similar practices and the
removal of organs.
To ascertain whether a particular circumstances constitutes trafficking in
persons, consider the definition of trafficking in the Trafficking in Persons
Protocol and the constituent elements of the offence, as defined by relevant
domestic legislation.

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Human Trafficking vs. Human Smuggling

Drug Trafficking
Drug trafficking involves selling drugs and drug paraphernalia, whether is it
local exchange between a user and a dealer or a major international operation.
Drug trafficking A problem that affects every nation in the world and exists in
many levels. Drug trafficking is the commercial exchange of drugs and drug
paraphernalia. This include any equipment used to manufacture illegal drugs
or use them.

Cybercrimes
Cybercrimes are generally defined as any type of illegal activity that makes
use of the Internet, a private or public network, or an in-house computer
system. While many forms of cybercrime revolve around the appropriation of
proprietary information for unauthorized use, other examples are focused more
on a invasion of privacy. As a growing problem around the world, many
countries are beginning to implement laws and other regulatory mechanisms in
an attempt to minimize the incidence of cybercrime.
Cybercrimes - are generally defined as any type of illegal activity that makes
use of the Internet, a private or public network, or an in-house computer
system.
Cyberstalking - a technologically based attack on person because of anger,
revenge, or control.
Computer Fraud - altering data or gaining unlawful use of computer or
services.
Identity Theft - using another's personal information to commit fraud or other
crimes.
Computer Viruses - a program that copies itself and infects a computer.

Denial of Service Attacks - making service unavailable to users.

Malware - malicious software that interferes with the functioning
of computers and sending data of user over the internet.
Information warfare - attacks on information and computer systems.

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Cybercrimes
1. The use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for
political
purposes.
2. The state of fear and submission produced by terrorism for terrorization.
3. A terroristic method of governing or of resisting a government.
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion. At
present, the International community has been unable to formulate a university
agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition of terrorism. Common definitions
of terrorism refer only to those violent acts which are intended to create fear
(terror), are perpetrated for a religious, political, or ideological goal, and
deliberately target or disregard the safety of non-combatants (civilians). Some
definitions also include acts of unlawful violence and war. This history of
terrorism organizations suggest that they do not select terrorism for its political
effectiveness. Individual terrorists tend to be motivated more by a desire for
social solidarity with other members of their organization than by political
platforms or strategic objectives, which are often murky and undefined.

Terrorism vs. Organized Crime

Terrorism is another form of "organized" criminal behaviour, but it is distinct

from organized crime.An act of terrorism has a political
objective. Organized crime, on the other hand, always seeks to obtain a
financial or other material benefit, whereas power and control can be
secondary motives.

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Money Laundering
Money Laundering is the process of creating the appearance that large
amounts of money obtained from serious crimes, such as drug trafficking,
originated from a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictions with
varying definitions. It is a key operation of the underground economy.

Topics Video Links

Transnational Organized Crime https://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=PrToG9NZnLY
Human Trafficking vs. Human https://www.youtube.com/watch?v
Smuggling =kHUN2bwwj_0
Stages of Money Laundering https://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=sEVbmgbbYq4
References:Dr. Vic Delos Santos; Comparative Police System Reviewer
RKM Solutions