Flows and Criminality : the Paradoxical fight

André-Michel Ventre,
Director of the INHESJ

"If organised crime were a State, its financial power would entitle it to claim membership of the G8".

Irrespective of the attempts to define globalization, whether as an uncontrollable phenomenon of geographical extension of non-government stakeholder objectives or, on the contrary, of voluntary government strategies, it is expressed and characterised by a mass of flows, to the extent that it is no longer anything other than the dominant symptom and sole element of its measure. Globalization cannot, however, be reduced to observation of internationalisation of exchanges of all types, but should also be analysed in terms of the malfunctions it is likely to generate, in particular in terms of security. In that respect, one can only recognise that the opportunities offered by easy communication and travel, combined with deregulation of economies and the resulting transformations in States are factors conducive to the development of criminal activities.
The most remarkable of the activities, organised crime, is considered to be the form that has most benefited from the new configuration of flows. One need only consult the data provided by the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) to observe the scope and extent of flows of narcotic drugs (cannabis, cocaine and heroin), firearms, counterfeit goods, diverted natural resources and victims of human trafficking for the purposes of prostitution or forced labour, as well as victims of migrant trafficking. Similarly, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)¹, through its policies to combat money laundering, contributes to better defining illicit flows of money. All these approaches, with the objective of producing a relatively accurate picture of flows arising from organised crime, presuppose reliable data. This data, however, is limited and its quality varies. Why ?

As emphasised by Mr Costa, the former director of the UNODC : "Today, the criminal market spans the planet : illicit goods are sourced from one continent, trafficked across another and marketed in a third".
There is therefore a broad range of illicit flows, some of which take advantage of different standards from one State to another, unsuitable legislation or unapplied laws. Some smugglers are able to draw maps where the weak points flash, showing where it is easy to enter territories. Europe is therefore a key target for international smugglers, despite the beginnings of harmonisation of public policies related to security and justice. The Stockholm Programme²takes this difficulty into account and focuses on constructive cooperation.
Illicit flows move in all directions, from south to north (the cocaine produced in the Andes travels to North America), from east to west (the heroin produced in Asia is consumed in Europe), and from north to south (undesirable waste travels from Europe to Africa)… Of course, industrialised countries appear to be the biggest markets for illicit trade.

Although we should be cautious when considering such phenomena, we can venture to provide figures on the prejudice suffered owing to this criminality³ :

There are an estimated 140,000 victims of human trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation in Europe alone. This trafficking generates a gross annual income of 3 billion dollars for the exploiters ;
The two most prominent flows for smuggling migrants are from Africa to Europe and from Latin America to the United States. Each year, 2.5 to 3 million people are smuggled from Latin American to the United States, generating 6.6 billion dollars for the smugglers ;
Europe is the highest value regional heroin market (20 billion dollars), while Russia has now become the leading heroin consumer worldwide (70 tons). "Narcotics cause the deaths of 30,000 to 40,000 young Russians each year" ;
In North America, the cocaine market is shrinking owing to lower demand and to reinforced detection and law enforcement measures. This has caused a turf war among gangs, in particular in Mexico, and new drug routes have appeared. "Cocaine is now sent to Europe via Africa, some countries in West Africa are weakened by this trafficking which generates multiple forms of violence and corruption" ;
Some countries, including Afghanistan (opium) and Colombia (coca) have not stopped production despite control systems, but in fact it is in the rich countries, for which the drugs are intended, that the highest profits from the drug trade are made. For example, the global Afghan heroin market is estimated at approximately 55 billion dollars, but only 2.3 billion dollars, or approximately 5 %, go to Afghan farmers, traders and insurgents. The cocaine market represents 72 billion dollars in North America and Europe, but some 70 % of the profits are pocketed by mid-level dealers in the consumer countries and not in the Andean region ;
The global illicit firearm market is estimated at 170 to 320 million dollars a year, i.e. 10 to 20 % of the legal market, although arms smuggling is rather episodic (i.e. linked to very specific conflicts) ;
Illegal exploitation of natural resources and trafficking in wild fauna and flora from Africa and South-East Asia are disrupting fragile ecosystems and leading to extinction of certain species. The UNODC considers that imports to the European Union and China of illicit wood and wood by-products from Asia reached approximately 2.5 billion dollars in 2009 ;
The quantity of counterfeit goods detected at European borders has increased tenfold over the past 10 years and their value represents over 10 billion dollars a year. Up to half of the medication tested in Africa and in South East Asia is counterfeit and substandard, which increases health risks instead of reducing them ;
The number of piracy attacks off the Horn of Africa doubled in the space of a year (increasing from 111 in 2008 to 217 in 2009) and is still rising. Pirates from one of the poorest countries in the world, Somalia, capture vessels to hold them for ransom, despite patrolling by the most powerful navies in the world. The ransoms paid reach over 100 million dollars a year ;
Over 1.5 million people are victims of identity theft each year, which is thought to cause economic loss estimated at 1 billion dollars. Cyber crime is threatening the security of nations by attacking power grids, air traffic and nuclear installations.

The size of the profits and the number of victims show to what extent organised crime has been able to make the most of the collateral effects of globalization, which is today acknowledged to have contributed to erosion of the sovereignty of States, in particular with respect to their economic, social or security-related affairs. The multiplication of economic exchanges, the mobility of goods and persons and the opening or removal of national borders all represent vectors of its dynamics and prosperity. Alongside traditional criminal organisations (Italian, Chinese, Japanese, South American…), others, based in Russia and its satellites in particular, have asserted themselves and succeeded their expansion at global level. They first took advantage of the huge opportunity offered by the hasty withdrawal of the Red Army from all the former Republics, then used religious solidarities or community-based positions to impose their methods, first in Eastern Europe, then around the Mediterranean, in particular in Lebanon and Cyprus and, finally, increased their presence in Western Europe and in the United States. Their flexible organisation adapts easily to the growth of technological communication networks. Their command of new information and communication technologies allows them to operate very quickly, both to launder money on financial markets and to counter police investigations. This adaptation to the speed of communications which facilitates decision-making and therefore, directly, greater wealth, fascinates and draws all those whose interest is to circumvent traditional social organisations based on the rule of law. In this case, criminal organisations are the main beneficiaries of the acceleration of history set in motion by globalization. As the very models of an organised society which must constantly react and adapt, they have also become a key player, as they are better than others at adapting to the exponential growth of international communication tools and acceleration of exchanges of all types. It is also noteworthy that certain States bear a heavy responsibility in the prosperity of criminal organisations due to bank secrecy which is an effective source of wealth for the States concerned.
Organised crime is now considered as an increasingly precise threat for civil society. Criminals succeed in weaving their way into the circles of power, through corruption of elites. The very governance and stability of certain States is at stake. In many regions of the world, States weaken to the point where they become virtual or fictitious. These States serve as nodal points for criminal organisations in whose interest it is to support or even create the absence of the State, both to ensure prosperity of their trafficking operations and to strengthen their social base by operating amidst a mosaic of non government organisations, religious movements, neighbourhood organisations, and clans to participate in the operation of collective infrastructures and local services.
It would therefore appear that strong Nation-States are the most relevant political models to resist the systemic risk that criminalisation of flows is likely to produce. In keeping with the definition of Hobbes in Leviathan, the Nation-State fulfils its obligations of guaranteeing civil peace between those placed under its power and to protect them from any assailant. Given that they are regulating and sovereignist by nature, however, these States harbour the seeds of a paradox which underpins the fight against cross-border organised crime.
From its genesis to its result, the criminal activity related to flows has the same characteristics and raises the same issues with respect to the jurisdiction of states, while judges still come up against borders. In these conditions, one may rightfully ask whether the Nation-State, as the embodiment of sovereignty of which it is the guarantor and emanation, is not an obstacle to the fight against a phenomenon, while appearing, at the same time, to be the best counterattack. Faced with forms of criminality whose credo is adaptation, a systematic search for easy earnings and increased profit, the individual action of States who intended to confine themselves to effects in their own territories has shown its limits. Although cooperation cannot be decreed, it is a fundamental prerequisite to attempt to curb this phenomenon.
In light of the severe threats posed by organised crime, international organisations, from the United Nations Security Council to the EU via the G8, the OECD and the OSCE have all committed themselves to defining and implementing countermeasures and cooperation between States. Some are more active given the significance of the phenomenon in their territory, others (like developing countries) form coalitions so that measures implemented to combat crime do not hamper their growth and development.
Development of international cooperation is also necessary with a view to compensating inequality among the countries faced with organised crime. It is important that support for development and technical assistance be focused on reducing the vulnerability of developing countries. When the State fails to deliver basic public services, ensuring essential solidarity and security, criminal organisations fill the vacuum. In the long term, this can generate perverse effects in the reproduction of societies. Pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals should lead poorer nations into a virtuous circle, an effective means to fight crime, which remains an obstacle to development. We must also devote increased attention to criminal justice in peace-building and peace-keeping operations.

Faced with this situation, should we lose faith in the future ?

Almost naturally, internationalisation of crime has led to internationalisation of the reaction of the international community. Today, we can state that, to a certain extent, the legal norm is designed at a level other than that of States. It would be more accurate to say that national legal orders are attempting to adapt their legislation to cross-border requirements by weaving a complex web of new relations between state and supra-state legal orders. The process has started but the progress made should not conceal the real challenges that go beyond mere judicial or police arrangements. Controlling these criminal systems is not just a matter of investigating and convicting, but also involves the birth of a new order of criminal regulation which will have to find an answer to the equation of antagonism between the reasserted needs of sovereignty of States and their necessary openness to a global security system.

André-Michel VENTRE
Director of the INHESJ

¹Money laundering is intrinsically outside the normal scope covered by economic statistics. It is, however, possible to provide rough estimates to have an idea of the scope of the problem. In 1996, according to the International Monetary Fund, the aggregate volume of money laundering worldwide was thought to be between two and five percent of the global gross domestic product. If we refer to the statistics for the year 1996, these percentages lead us to conclude that money laundering represented 590 to 1,500 billion US dollars (including tax fraud).
²The European Council launched the Stockholm Programme in December 2009. Its aim is a more secure Europe: a security strategy should be developed to further increase security within the European Union, and thereby protect the lives of the citizens of the Union and ensure their safety, and to fight organised crime, terrorism and other threats. This strategy should aim to reinforce cooperation in the fields of law enforcement and border controls, as well as to increase judicial cooperation in criminal matters to make Europe safer.
³Source: United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC).

Download the article (PDF)