Transnational Crime

Jon Nakapalau, CPO, CHSO

Charles “Lucky” Luciano

Let me walk you through this concept…

What is Transnational Crime? • 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 goals. Crimes commonly include money laundering; human smuggling; cyber crime; 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.

• The political turmoil of the 21st century and advances in technology make transnational crime a concern for the United States. Increased travel and trade and advances in telecommunications and computer technology have had the unintended effect of providing avenues for the rapid expansion of transnational organized crime activities. Policing objectives in the United States must extend beyond national borders to seek out and target this type of crime. Only through international collaboration and information exchange can the United States develop effective protocol and policies for countering these crimes and mount a serious opposition.

National Institute of Justice: www.nij.gov

“If you have a lot of what people want and can’t get, then you can supply the demand and shovel in the

dough.”

SOS

• Think of transnational crime like a kraken and the countries it attacks like “ships of state.”

• Krakens come from the deep to attack ships; if the kraken can get enough tentacles around the ship it can drag it to the bottom.

The invisible tentacles of crime…

Transnational crime takes advantage of the fact that the illicit supply and demand for a product will be filled by

criminal groups.

Once logistical commodity “tentacles” have been established it is no surprise that groups will often fight to

solidify their position.

Well stated

Mr. Luciano!

Tentacular Expansion

• When Transnational Organized Crime (TOC) networks emerge there is often a disruption of law enforcement activities due to the fact that the network may be working on strategies that can be executed by embedded personnel; this will often overwhelm the ability of different criminal justice systems to proactively address issues.

Different agendas; same fate

You want to take me on before your crew even

knows who the captain is…hey great! Good luck!

Simple Transactional Schema:

UNITED STATES: Weapon MEXICO: Drugs

"There's no such thing as good money or bad

money. There's just money."

Gun tentacle, drug tentacle:

• All tentacles “feed” the same “mouth.”

• Tentacles can be cut off at the tip, but to stop it from feeding the mouth it must be severed.

• The dactylus (suckers) of the tentacles may continue to “mark” the economy.

Criminal Cohesion

• Think of the dactylus of the tentacle as the areas that are “gripped” by the tentacles…

• These areas provide “traction” which enables the tentacle to maintain cohesion over a given area.

Tractional Cohesion Points

En sue tinta

• “Cooked in ink” refers to a dish in which the ink of the squid is used to cook it. As criminal activities “blot” the area local, state and federal law enforcement must agree on the same “recipe” to “cook” the kraken.

Summary:• Transnational crime is tentacular in mode of expansion.• Transnational Criminal Organizations (TOC) are like krakens; countries are “ships of state.”• The tentacles will try to drag the ships of state to the bottom.• Each tentacle may represent a distribution route used to feed the mouth.• Not all tentacles are viewed by “captains” (state governments) as dangerous.• The dactylus provide criminal cohesion over the length of the tentacle.• Tractional Cohesion Points (TCPs) are areas of control which allow the tentacle to “adhere.”• Corrupt officials may aid in smoothing out TCPs. • The more TCPs the stronger the hold on a given geographic area.• Using a “dot-to- dot” matrix TCPs will start to trace invisible tentacles. • TCPs are autogenic if adhesion is strong enough.• Cutting off the tip of a single tentacle will not address all TCPs.• En sue tinta is a strategy in which the “ink” (criminal activity) is used to cook the kraken.• En sue tinta must be a recipe followed by local, state and federal law enforcement.• En sue tinta is the dish that is served…will the captain and crew eat the dish?

THE END

Bye!