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Essay on Organised Crime
Essay Contents:
- Essay on the Meaning of Organised Crime
- Essay on the Different Types of Organised Crime
- Essay on the Existing and Emerging Threats of Organised Crime
- Essay on Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), 1999
- Essay on UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime and the Protocols
Essay # 1.
Meaning of Organised Crime:
Organised crime means ‘a structured group of three or more persons existing for a period of time and acting in concert with the aim of committing serious crimes or offences to obtain, directly or indirectly, financial or other material benefit’.
It manifests in many forms. Organised crime can be further classified into two categories, viz., traditional organised crime and non-traditional (modern) organised crime.
Traditional organised crime includes illicit liquor trade, betting, gambling, kidnapping, extortion, prostitution rackets, robbery, blackmailing, sand mafia, mining mafia, contract killing, pornography, etc.
Non-traditional organised crime includes transnational crime like money laundering, pumping fake Indian currency notes (FICN), hawala transfer, cybercrime, hacking, human trafficking, arms smuggling, drugs smuggling, etc.
What is Transnational Organised Crime?
As per UN Convention, transnational organised crime comprises:
i. A group of three or more persons that was not randomly formed;
ii. Existence of such a group for a period of time;
iii. Acting in concert with the aim of committing at least one crime punishable by at least four years’ incarceration;
iv. In order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or other material benefit.
Since most ‘groups’ of any sort contain three or more people working in concert and most exist for a period of time, the true defining characteristics of organised crime groups under the UN Convention are their profit-driven nature and the seriousness of the offences they commit. The following defines organised crime and terrorism and compares traditional versus modern versions.
Traditional:
A. Organised Crime:
i. Based on power over local communities.
ii. Family organization.
B. Terrorism:
i. Based on support in oppressed communities.
ii. Military model of top-to-bottom organization.
Modern:
A. Organised Crime:
i. Based on expansion of global markets.
ii. Networks of entrepreneurs.
B. Terrorism:
i. Based on sympathizers in several countries.
ii. Networks of ideologically committed operatives.
Link between Organised Crime and Terrorism:
Terrorists engage in organised crime to support themselves financially. Drugs trafficking, money laundering, FICN, supari killing and extortion are the main organised crimes by which terrorists generate money.
Organised crime groups and terrorists often operate on same network structures. Terrorists thrive under the cloak of transnational organised crime groups. Both organised crime groups and terrorist groups operate in areas with little governmental controls, weak enforcement of laws and open borders. Both often use similar means of modern technology to communicate.
These groups may provide smuggled arms and explosives to terrorist groups in exchange for drugs or diamonds, etc. Terrorist groups make use of smuggling networks established by organised crime to move operatives around the world. Criminal groups also provide money laundering services. Terrorist groups controlling the terrain tax drug traffickers in return for protection.
Organised crime and terrorism thrive on ineffective governance, poor checks and balances. They have developed a symbiotic relationship. But neither are all terrorist acts organised crime, nor are all organised criminal acts terrorism; in most developed countries, organised crime thrives with little or no terrorist activities, and in most developing countries, terrorism exists along with varying levels of organised criminal activity.
Major Differences between Organised Crime and Terrorism:
The differences between them rest on means and ends. Terrorism aims to overthrow the existing government by altering the status quo. Organised crime, on the other hand, aims to form a parallel government (parallel economy) while co-existing with the existing one; any change in the status quo is only circumstantial or a by-product and born out of convenience rather than zealous revisionist policy.
Secondly, terrorism primarily uses violent means, whereas organised crime prefers to be non-violent notwithstanding the odd resort to belligerence. Third, terrorism is driven purely by political objectives despite sometimes resorting to exploitation of regional, national and religious sentiments to achieve their ends; conversely, economic objectives are the operational determinants of organised crime.
Essay # 2.
Different Types of Organised Crime:
Different types of organised crime include:
i. Narcotics trafficking
ii. Arms trafficking
iii. Human smuggling
iv. Gold smuggling
v. Fake currency
vi. Kidnapping and extortion
vii. Contract killing/supari killing
viii. Cyber crime
ix. Money laundering
x. Maritime piracy
xi. CBRN smuggling (Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defence)
xii. Trading in human body parts
xiii. Infiltration of illegal businesses
It is worth mentioning that the first five activities in the above list are more prone to have terrorist linkages.
Essay # 3.
Existing and Emerging Threats of Organised Crime:
With the loss of state sponsorship for terrorism, terrorist groups need to pursue different means of financing, mainly through arms and drugs trafficking. Terrorist dependence on organised crime for financial viability and organisational survival will increase in the near future. Structurally, terrorist groups will increasingly mirror organised crime groups. Terrorist groups will rapidly move in search of new opportunities to generate funds. Dependent on the financial opportunities available, both sources and methods of generating revenue will differ from one another.
With state-sponsors distancing themselves, terrorist groups will either develop robust organised crime components or work closely with organised crime groups. While the bulk of the terrorist groups will retain their political leanings, the potential for a few terrorist groups to degenerate into pure criminal groups will, nevertheless, increase.
To effectively combat international terrorism, state response will have to factor in the nexus between terrorists and organised crime.
Among the principal responses to regulating these existing and emerging threats are:
1. Develop exceptionally good military and intelligence expertise to neutralise terrorist groups. The approach of punishing individuals, but permitting groups that have perpetrated violence to exist, is highly counterproductive.
2. Develop arrangements with states to disrupt terrorist support networks and assist states by sharing intelligence and exchanging personnel to fight transnational terrorist networks.
3. Terrorist groups can be effectively crushed only at an early stage. The failure to fight efficiently, legitimately and ethically — especially against an ethnically and religiously empowered group — can lead to indiscriminate violence, which can favour the terrorists. With time, most conflicts can gather momentum generating substantial popular support. In such instances, a political solution over a military solution should be considered.
4. Often, devolving regional autonomy or power sharing has been the most effective strategy. But, it works primarily in the formative phases of a conflict. The process requires close supervision, particularly during the implementation phase.
5. A politico-military approach should be evolved to politically isolate a group in order to stem support and recruits, and to simultaneously offer political and economic incentives and to militarily pressurise it to join the mainstream. Often, links with foreign groups, state sponsors, or diaspora-support can provide the confidence to fight on. Transnational networks make such groups more resilient.
6. Stringent law like TADA, MCOCA, Gangster Act, etc. to deal with organised crime
7. While some of these threats can be resolved unilaterally by states, most require bilateral and multilateral arrangements.
8. Some of the threats can be regulated at the sub-regional and others at the regional level.
9. Some of the threats are new, others are old, but have assumed a renewed dimension. Therefore, new institutions capable of delivering multi-pronged responses are essential to regulate extant and emerging threats.
Essay # 4.
Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), 1999:
Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, 1999 (MCOCA) is a law enacted by Maharashtra in 1999 to combat organised crime and terrorism. The preamble to MCOCA says that ‘the existing legal framework, i.e., the penal and procedural laws and the adjudicatory system, are found to be rather inadequate to curb or control the menace of organised crime.
Government has, therefore, decided to enact a special law with stringent and deterrent provisions including, in certain circumstances, power to intercept wire, electronic or oral communication to control the menace of organised crime. Unlike normal law, the confessions before senior police officers are admissible, not only against the accused giving the confession but also against the other accused in the same case. There is no provision for granting anticipatory bail for six months to the accused.
MCOCA puts a bar on soft liberal bail provisions. Under MCOCA, ‘not bail but jail’ is the controlling principle. Police can file charge sheet within 180 days instead of the 90 days’ time limit in normal cases. There are measures in MCOCA which ensure protection of witnesses, like keeping the identity and address of the witness secret, and the witness need not be produced in court.
Essay # 5.
UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime and the Protocols:
UNTOC is the guardian of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime (Organised Crime Convention) and the three Protocols (Trafficking in Persons, Smuggling of Migrants and Trafficking of Firearms) that supplement it.
This is the only international convention, which deals with organised crime. It is a landmark achievement, representing the international community’s commitment to combating transnational organised crime and acknowledging the UN’s role in supporting this commitment. The adoption of the Convention at the fifty-fifth session of the General Assembly of the United Nations in 2000 and its entry into force in 2003 also marked a historic commitment by the international community to counter organised crime.
The Organised Crime Convention offers states which are party to the convention, a framework for preventing and combating organised crime, and a platform for cooperating in doing so. These states have committed to establishing the criminal offences of participating in an organised crime group, money laundering, corruption and obstruction of justice in their national legislation.
By becoming parties to the UNTOC, these states also have access to a new framework for mutual legal assistance and extradition, as well as a platform for strengthening law enforcement cooperation. States have also committed to promoting training and technical assistance to strengthen the capacity of national authorities to address organised crime.