International Journal on Criminology Volume 2, Number 1, Spring 2014 | Page 29

Criminal State and Illicit Economy
Perhaps logically, the 2011 U.S.
Strategy to combat transnational organized
crime (TOC) considers TOC, a novelty, as
a "national security threat" while urging
other states to undertake a similar step 21 .
The U.S. President goes on to declare,
"Criminal networks are not only expanding
their operations, but they are also
diversifying their activities, resulting in a
convergence of transnational threats that
has evolved to become more complex, volatile,
and destabilizing. These networks also
threaten U.S. interests by forging alliances
with corrupt elements of national governments
and using the power and influence
of those elements to further their criminal
activities. In some cases, national governments
exploit these relationships to further
their interests to the detriment of the United
States" 22 .
This last sentence, a rare instance in
official publications, underlines the following;
governments can, for reason of state or
less legitimate motives, protect, take advantage
of, or control and develop criminal activities.
This further reveals the geopolitical
nature of crime and its systemic impact.
It notably justifies the shift from public to
global and national security concerns.
However, the traditional legal and
operational toolbox made of treaties, international,
regional, and bilateral cooperation
and dedicated organizations appears
ill-adapted to this new type of criminal
player proven as flexible and agile as organized
crime while enjoying the legal privileges
and immunities of states 23 .
The Inbreeding of Organized Crime
and State: From Reason of State to
Criminal State
The defining trait of the twenty-first
century, as mentioned in Obama's
statement, organized crime can be
overtaken by states, not as to be destroyed,
but as to be controlled in view to reap the
benefit of its illicit deeds.
As any living creature, a state is driven
by one paramount instinct; survive and
thrive. History shows that no action will be
spared to ensure this very survival, including,
of course, through actions that would
be deemed illegal if not covered by the reason
of state. If history has found legitimacy
in some of them, nowadays, illegal state actions
involving organized crime no longer
seem to be directly led by this survival imperium
but rather more economic and prosaic
personal wealth. A symbiotic relation
between state and crime is thus developed 24 .
Bulgaria
Another quantum leap example
from public security to global and national
security concerns can be found in a now
aged 2005 U.S. diplomatic cable released
by WikiLeaks. "TIM [described as a major
organized crime group] controls some of the
largest quarries of inert materials in Bulgaria,
and through its trading company […] it
also has a significant share of the production
and trade in fertilizers, petroleum products,
and chemicals" 25 .
21
Following on the 2010 National Intelligence Estimate on international organized crime which first in the
United States made the shift from public security threat to national security threat.
22
White House, U.S. Strategy to Combat Transnational Organized Crime, June 2011, iii.
23
M. Naím, opus citum.
24
Mickaël R. Roudaut, Sécurité intérieure et crime organisé au XXIe siècle, Op. cit.
25
Cable #001207, July 7, 2005, http://wikileaks.ch/cable/2005/07/05SOFIA1207.html
27