International Journal on Criminology Volume 2, Number 1, Spring 2014 | Página 35

Criminal State and Illicit Economy
drug traffickers, usually in return for ordering
Sandinista judges to allow traffickers caught
by the police and military to go free" 53 .
As for the neighboring Panamá, his
former leader and CIA informant, Manuel
Noriega, ousted by the United States in 1989
was first condemned for drug trafficking and
money laundering and sentenced to 30 years
imprisonment in Florida, reduced to 17 for
"good behavior". Extradited to France, he
was condemned to a seven years jail sentence
for money laundering. He was extradited to
Panamá in December 2011.
North Korea
Pyongyang has notably been accused
by the U.S. government of counterfeiting its
currency "apparently done to generate foreign
exchange that is used to purchase imports or
finance government activities abroad" 54 .
Russia
In a 2010 widely reported U.S. diplomatic
cable released by WikiLeaks, a senior
Spanish prosecutor investigating organized
crime "gave a detailed, frank assessment of the
activities and reach of organized crime (OC)
in both Eurasia and Spain". For [Belarus,
Chechnya and Russia] he alleged, one cannot
differentiate between the activities of the government
and OC groups". For him, Russian
organized crime "exercises 'tremendous control'
over certain strategic sectors of the global
economy, such as aluminum" 55 .
"[He] said that according to information
he has received from intelligence
services, witnesses and phone taps, certain
political parties in Russia operate 'hand in
hand' with OC. For example, he argued that
the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) was created
by the KGB and its successor, the SVR,
and is home to many serious criminals. [He]
further alleged that there are proven ties between
the Russian political parties, organized
crime and arms trafficking. Without elaborating,
he cited the strange case of the 'Artic
Sea' ship in mid-2009 as 'a clear example' of
arms trafficking" 56 .
"He summarized his views by asserting
that the [Moscow]'s strategy is to use OC
groups to do whatever [it] cannot acceptably
do as a government. As an example, he cited
[an individual arrested in Spain], whom he
said worked for Russian military intelligence
to sell weapons to the Kurds to destabilize
Turkey. [The Spanish prosecutor] claimed
that [Moscow] takes the relationship with
OC leaders even further by granting them the
privileges of politics, in order to grant them
immunity from racketeering charges" 57 .
"[The Spanish prosecutor] said that
he believes the FSB is 'absorbing' the Russian
mafia but they can also 'eliminate' them in
two ways: by killing OC leaders who do not
do what the security services want them to do
or by putting them behind bars to eliminate
them as a competitor for influence. The crime
lords can also be put in jail for their own protection"
58 .
53
Cable #63040, May 5, 2006. http://www.elpais.com/articulo/internacional/Cable/jueces/sandinistas/ponen/
libertad/narcos/cambio/dinero/elpepuesp/20101206elpepuint_37/Tes
54
CRS, North Korean Counterfeiting of U.S. Currency, June 12, 2009, 15 p. and 22 mars 2006, 18 p., International
Herald Tribune, August 20, 2006 "North Korea linked to Asian Banks", Foreign Policy, September–October
2008, 61.
55
Cable #000154, February 8, 2010 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/247712.
56
Id.
57
Id.
58
Id.
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