Globalisation, Global Criminal Networks and Crime

Table of Contents

Last Updated on August 2, 2024 by Karl Thompson

One of the downsides of the increasing interconnectedness between societies is the increase in global crime. Global crime is estimated to be worth several trillion dollars annually. Some of the most common types of global crime include:

The drugs trade

People Trafficking
Cyber crimes
International Terrorism

According to Misha Glenny (2009) global criminal networks are responsible for most of this crime. This post summarises aspects of Misha Glenny’s classic 2009 text: McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld.

Global Criminal Networks and The Global Criminal Economy

Global Criminal networks involve complex interconnections between a range of criminal organisations which transcend national boundaries including the American Mafia, Columbian drug cartels, the Russian Mafia, Chinese Triads and the Sicilian Costa Nostra.

Global criminal networks have developed because of the growth of an information age in which knowledge as well as goods and people can move quickly and easily across national boundaries.

According to Misha Glenny these networks form a global criminal economy which accounts for 15% of global trade – (Misha Glenny, (2008) McMafia: Crime without Frontiers). In order of importance (in economic terms) the main crimes organised criminal gangs engage in are:

Drug trafficking estimated – 8 % of world trade
Money laundering estimated 2 – 5 % of global GDP.

4 – 5 million people trafficked each year = profits of up to US$9.5 billion

These criminal networks also trade in weapons, pharmaceuticals, nuclear materials, body parts, metals, precious stones / natural resources, stolen cars, art, antiques, rare animals and counterfeit goods.

They provide and control illicit services, most notably, gambling and prostitution, they engage in cybercrime, robbery, kidnapping, extortion, corruption, and piracy, and finally there is also terrorism.

Misha Glenny: The role of organised Crime in Ex-Communist Countries

Glenny suggests that organised criminal gangs are especially important in facilitating the trade in illegal goods and services. Organised criminal gangs (basically the Mafia) have become especially influential in those areas of the world where there is weak rule of law (i.e. failed and transitional states), distrust of the state (i.e. Italy, and Mexico), inaccessible terrain (i.e. Peru and Colombia), high levels of corruption, and easy access to weapons and access to Transnational networks.

One of the most significant criminal networks which impacts Europe operates from Bulgaria – a country which is a ‘Hub’ between the rich and poor parts of the world, and where the Mafia have held considerable power since the collapse of Communism in the late 1980s. Most of the drugs people take in the UK and many of the prostitutes British men sleep with have been shipped by the Bulgarian Mafia.

Another key point is that all of this global crime is driven by consumer demand in rich countries!

McMafia

Glenny coined the term ‘McMafia’ to emphasise just how organised these criminal networks are. In Eastern Europe they operate a kind of franchise system like Mcdonalds do. That is the national level Mafias have illegal business models in place that works. They expanded into new areas by finding existing criminals to adopt these methods and become part of the larger network.

Globalisation and Crime

Capitalism, Globalisation and Crime

The problems of controlling global crime

Evaluation of Glenny

It’s worth noting that Glenny is a journalist, not a sociologist. So although this research was based on years of interviews with a range of actors this material hasn’t been peer reviewed by sociologists.

The work may be less relevant now with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which would have disrupted criminal supply chains.

Dick Hobbs and Colin Dunningham examined how organised crime has expanded on the back of globalisation in their 1990s ethnographic study .

They suggest that criminal organisations like the Mafia are not dominant, but most global crime operates through a glocal system – that is, there’s a global distribution network built from local connections.

For example local growers of cannabis deliver their product to a supply-chain feeding a global network of users. Similarly, Colombian drug barons use glocal systems to deliver their product to the world.