28 June 2009

Fraud Inquiry into government jobs Scheme

A4e, just awarded £100 million contract and employing David Blunkett, fined for staff making false claims of getting people into work...

25 June 2009

Drug Cultivation plummets in Afghanistan as demand falls

Publication of UN World Drug report [http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/frontpage/2009/June/world-drug-report-2009-released.html ]

21 June 2009

Dollar compared to Sean McGowan

The article starts with a story about which I would like to know more. two Japanese arrested on the Italian-Swiss border with $134 billion in US Government bonds. the bonds were forgeries, and the article rambles off into another strange discussion as to whether the dollar is doomed.
But I want to know more about these guys and who they were trying to scam!!!!

16 June 2009

The Wahhabi rule Dagestan

our old friend Yulia Latynina arguing that Jihadists have set up a protection racket and are now well-funded and well-armed in Dagestan.

Russia leads Europe in reporter killings

Moscow more unsafe for journalists than Chechnya.Report from the International Union of Journalists.

13 alleged Mafia members arrested in Trapini

From la Reppublica. names, ages, indictments. Allegedly those arrested include the Mafia boss of Trapini, Matteo Messina Denaro. Quite a lot of information, including stuff on the olive oil racket.

There's so little in the British press about organised crime that I'm back to other sources, I'm afraid. anyway, its good for your foreign language skills!

15 June 2009

Pakistan orders Manhunt for Taliban Leader Baitullah Mehsud

Army to go into South Waziristan, where al Qaeda leaders are also supposed to be. Mehsud is supposed to be behind suicide bombings in Pakistan.

14 June 2009

The Dark Side of Shopping

Piece from the magazine on women and shoplifting. There's a book about to come out by Neal Lawson, author of this piece, which is accompanied by 5 interviews with shoplifters.

13 June 2009

A Mexican Cartel's Swift and grisly Climb

La Familia Michoacana, drug cartel and messianic cult, "promises to protect the poor while meting out "divine justice" to its enemies, including rituals in which executioners carve cryptic initials in their victims' foreheads." [Quotation from Washington post article.] the effect of the counter-narcotics strategy has been to change the nature of Mexico's drug cartels, rather than to eliminate them.
la Familia is new, as is Los Zetas, a group of rogue special forces personnel. But the article also hints that there is a political side to the anti-narcotics campaign, with mayors who oppose the governing party being arrested.
La Familia is establishing civil society and support networks. there is, of course, a piec on this in this month's Newsletter.

12 June 2009

How a Black Ferrari Snared the £1 bn Drug barons

This is really the story of the investigation, not of the organisation. that will make a nice book for some speed writing journalist in the not too distant future.
The Hanna family and their associates. A very cautious group of operators, allegedly.

10 June 2009

Plying the Pacific, Subs Surface as key tool of Drug cartels

A third of cocaine smuggled into the US now travels in submersibles...and theyre trying to make radio controlled ones now!

09 June 2009

Criminal gangs target car buyers

Fake ads on real websites, with another website to take your money but claiming to "hold" it until the deal is complete.....

05 June 2009

Organisation of Crime Stream at APROS Conference Mexico December 2009

Dr. Daniel Tschofen and Professor Stephan Laske are organizing a conference stream on
the organization of crime. The title of the stream is 'organizing
crime'. The stream will be within the Asian-Pacific-Researchers in
Organization Studies (APROS) conference in December 2009 in Mexico.

Concepts of criminal organizations are directly relevant to your work
and a collaboration of academics researching crime and those focusing on
organization theory might provide a substantial contribution to both
fields.

Given the relevance of the stream to your field of research, would it be
possible to circulate the call for papers through your mailing list?

Kind regards,
Daniel Tschofen

--

Dr. Daniel Tschofen
Institut für Organisation und Lernen
Universitätsstraße 15
6020 Innsbruck

New Edition of Newsletter now out!

Clicking on the title will download the newsletter in .pdf format. details of next month's Summer school on Catania and several fascinating articles:
Stefano Becucci on Nigerians and Prostitution in Italy
Jean-Louis Briquet and Gilles Favaret-Garrigues "Socio-Historical Analysis of Politico-criminal Configurations"
Peter Klerks: exposing Criminal nodes through social network analysis
Bill Tupman: Civil Society and Organised Crime
Daniela Irrera: a Literature Review of Political Corruption