Piece by Mary O’Hara on the aftermath of the Peace Process in Northern Ireland with lots of comments on the paramilitaries and organised crime. Lots in there for the researcher.
Pasquale Condello, head of ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia has been arrested. Ive chosen the Guardian story because there are links to another page with all recent stories on the Drugs Trade and to International Crime. Guardian appears to be reorganising its website, because its taking time to load and there are lots of “what me? I dont exist” pages around at the moment.
Same story on the BBC site at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7251892.stm
New York Times article about the long way round by which iphones made in China return there for use on the domestic market. Illicit business or illegal business? Whichever, It’s big money for somebody somewhere.
Young street criminals are taking their gang allegiances and love of knives into the prison system with them, according to this article from the Guardian. I seem to remember that this was the way many classic turf-oriented organised crime groups began in other countries. Dangerous stuff for the long term.
Lots of euro banknotes coming through Miami airport, allegedly from proceeds of cocaine deals in Europe. Associated Press Report available via msnbc. Article describe the laundering technique.
Paper from the Australian Institute of Criminology on issues raised by technology-enabled crime and some useful links to previous work.
Independent on Sunday’s review of art theft. Apparently the FBI considers it to be the third most lucrative international criminal operation, after drugs and weapons, worth about £3 billion a year. [I know, last week it was trafficking in human beings, the week before it was cigarette smuggling. Plus ca change!]
This is the monthly Newsletter of the COPS office [Community Oriented Policing Service. Home page: http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/ ] in the US. Article in this issue on community policing partnerships as a key element in Homeland Security strategy. Worth reading in connection to the previous post.
Lambert’s unit’s work raises questions that the article here doesnt really address: Getting the balance right between using and reassuring the community, especially where the community is an ethnic or religious minority or both. A purely instrumental approach can increase alienation. The second question is where is the line to be drawn? Are there members of the community who should not be brought into partnership in any circumstances or are the police to engage in partnership with all groups in the community who are willing to engage? Should the police seek partnership with any group that opposes violence within the state? What if that group supports violence elsewhere? Say for example, to avoid the obvious cases, to overthrow Putin’s government or to “liberate” Tibet?
More finals essay questions for you all to set your students!
The link is to the Internet Centre for Corruption Research, but today’s announcement on their site is for their annual postgraduate programmes, starting in October.