29 February 2012

December 2011 issue of newsletter is out

Review of the Summer School and several excellent articles.

July 7 bomber's widow 'on the run' over links with terrorist cell

Alleged details of British citizens connected to al Shaabab being sought in Kenya. Original story named woman as Natalie Faye Webb, but this appears to have been a case of identity theft. Investigators now say she is the widow of one of the July 7th bombers. Lots of details in this piece.

Dozens of suspected Anonymous hackers arrested in worldwide sweep

Interpol claims to have coordinated the arrests in Spain and Latin America.

UN says Liverpool has drug-related 'no-go areas' like those in Brazilian favelas

Actually it wasnt just Liverpool that the UN was talking about. Some years ago there was an article in the Sunday Times that identified 40 "no-go" areas in the UK...Definitionally speaking, it meant places where the police only go when it's raining hard! Still, this can be part of my continuing focus on my home city.

27 February 2012

Mexico's Security Initiatives Pass the 'Synthesis Test

News of growing violence and murder in Mexico was callously thrust upon an open world audience of information curiosity back in 2005, when narcoterrorism raised its sinister head on the US border with Mexico.

In what was essentially to become a war against drug gangs and rivals, the death toll that includes Mexican governing officials, police and military, media professionals, and other innocents would incredibly rise to over 50,000 deaths by 2012.

Georgia: Ways to Avoid Cyber Attacks

The FINANCIAL -- The computerization of Georgian society is resulting in an inevitable increase of cyber crime in the country. Specialists predict that there will be a growth of organized crime involved in cybercrime in the near future.



Cyber criminals can mislead consumers and carry out attacks via social networks. The most widespread methods are by creating false profiles of acquaintances and being added as a friend so as to get additional info, as well as sharing false, urgent information to mislead users and infect them with viruses.

22 February 2012

Organised crime "routinely jamming GPS"

Not certain whether this is a conference paper predicting how jammers could be used or reporting research on how they actually are used.

21 February 2012

Scotland: Criminal gangs look to renewables boom to launder millions

ORGANISED criminal gangs in Scotland are eyeing the renewables industry, including windfarms, as a potential way of laundering money, police have said.

The Scottish Crime and Drugs Enforcement Agency (SCDEA) is particularly wary after gangs targeted similar projects abroad.
The agency believes criminals may attempt to use legitimate businesses as a front so they are able to secure large grants that are available in what is a growing industry.

Cosa Nostra apartment seized in Padua

Assets for 800,000 euro and in particular an apartment belonging to the Muncivì family - linked to Cosa Nostra - has been seized in Padova (Northeast Italy). This is considered another evidence of the presence of the Mafia in the Veneto region.

18 February 2012

Is the anti-mafia certificate really useful?

A provocative suggestion made by Piero Grasso - the national anti-mafia prosecutor - is to change the certificate of non-involvement in organised crime into a sort of "white-list" of good-behaving enterprises. The presence of the anti-mafia certificate currently influences the issuance of licences by the Public Administration and the very possibility of entering into contracts with the Public Administration, but this system can be simply eluded by the use of figureheads.

14 February 2012

South Africa's capital of organised crime

Cape Town's image as South Africa's crime-free paradise is being tainted by international underworld figures who flock to the city to ply their dubious trade.

In recent weeks, Serbian fugitive Dobrosav Gavric, Russian Igor Russol and Moroccan Houssain Ait Taleb have made appearances in the Cape Town Magistrate's Court.

They have all been branded by police as underworld figures with links to organised crime.

13 February 2012

Organized crime in West Africa the focus of talks between UN envoy, Interpol

13 February 2012 – Transnational organized crime in West Africa, including illicit drug trafficking and the proliferation of illegal arms, as well as maritime piracy, dominated discussions today between a senior United Nations envoy and the head of the international police organization, Interpol.

Anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing across the globe: A comparative study of regulatory action

and a third related Report. I havent had time to read the three yet, but I certainly will!

Trade-based money laundering: Risks and regulatory responses

Another handy AIC report

Money laundering and terrorism financing risks to Australian non-profit organisations

AIC Report. Any study of risk involves transferrable ideas and modes of analysis

11 February 2012

Call for papers

Invitation to contribute to a special issue on ?Women and Transnational Crime? (Journal: Trends in Organized Crime)
Special Issue Editors: Dr. Jana Arsovska, John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Until recent years, the criminality of women had a long history of neglect. Criminology has treated women?s role in crime with a large measure of indifference. Women have been misrepresented in conventional criminological literature, leading to the development of feminists? critique of the accumulated wisdom about female offenders. Scholars have argued that theories of criminality developed by and validated on men had limited relevance for explaining women?s crime and that criminologists had little understanding of the social worlds of women. Throughout the years, feminist scholars have succeeded in ?gendering criminology?. Feminist approaches have tended to unmask the unique experiences that shape women?s criminal involvement and to understand the dynamic relationships between gender and crime.

The topic of this special issue is ?Women and Transnational Crime?. This issue will discuss current trends and developments in the field of transnational crime with focus on the role of women in committing cross-border activities. The editors would like to receive contributions on the role, presence, and activities of women in transnational criminal activities across the globe. By transnational crime we refer to acts that span national borders, violating the laws of more countries. The UN provides a list of eighteen crime categories that are considered transnational. These, among others, include money laundering, terrorism, theft of art and cultural objects, theft of intellectual property, illicit arms trafficking, airplane hijacking, sea piracy, insurance fraud, computer crime, environmental crime, trafficking in persons, corruption, drug trafficking, etc.

This Special Issue will study women's involvement in transnational crime from both practical and theoretical perspectives. Some of the suggested sub-topic for this Special Issue are: (1) the extent to which women with different backgrounds (ethnic, cultural, economic, educational, etc.) are involved in various transnational criminal activities; (2) the relation between women, social mobility, and transnational crime; (3) the role of women in transnational criminal networks (functional roles, peripheral actors, central players; recruiters, pimps/madams, curriers, victims-deceivers, consultants, debt-collectors, organizers, leaders, etc.); (4) the position of the woman in the criminal networks in the country of origin vs. the position of the women abroad (i.e., do they have more power abroad?); (5) the relation between male and females in the transnational networks (Are male and female offenders equally capable of committing transnational crime activities?); (6) the link between gender power, patriarchy, women subordination, and female offending (i.e., how women navigate gender-stratified environments, and how they accommodate and adapt to gender inequality in their commission of organized crime?). These are topics of growing importance to both practitioners and academics, and there has been limited scientific research done in this field. Therefore we encourage everyone who is interested in these issues to send us an abstract (250-400 words) and a paper topic latest by March 1, 2012.

Abstracts should be submitted latest by March 1, 2012. The final papers should be submitted by September 15, 2012. The special issue is scheduled to come out in February/March 2013.

Send your abstracts to:
Dr. Jana Arsovska, John Jay College of Criminal Justice [jarsovska@jjay.cuny.edu]

Massive methamphetamine seizure in Mexico

15 tonnes seized in Jalisco, near Guadalajara. Sinaloa cartel making it and smuggling it into the US.

08 February 2012

Nearly 160 held as Met police crack down on gangs

Yesterday, "organised crime". Today "gangs". Tomorrow, sho knows?

figures given for how many gangs there are in London [250, 4,800 individuals] and how many are "high harm" [eh? wazzat?] [62]

Hogan Howe keeps his political master and mistress happy

07 February 2012

Netherlands National drug Monitor 2010

English language text of the Annual Report. The National Drug Monitor (NDM), which has been drawn up since 1999 by the Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction [Trimbos-instituut] in collaboration with the WODC, is a descriptive report that provides an annual overview of substance use (drugs, alcohol and tobacco) and, since 2002, of recorded drug-related criminality and the criminal law response.
I'm not sure where the link to it is!

06 February 2012

Merseyside Police chief constable Jon Murphy declares war on Liverpool gangsters

More on organised crime in Liverpool. The third page gives us a summary of the story so far

04 February 2012

Gang-Busting Cop is one for the History Books in China

the story of a story. Mafia-busting in China..and political protection for mafias. Article hung up on the fact there may be a film

02 February 2012

Camorra imposes a curfew in Scampia

Camorra has imposed a sort of curfew in the neapolitan suburb of Scampia. Camorra wants to avoid new murders related to drug trafficking because those would attract the attention of media and politicians. However, local population is trying to react with a spontaneous movement ("OccupyScampia") originated through social networks.

01 February 2012