International Journal on Criminology Volume 2, Number 2, Fall 2014 | Page 5

Charting Illicit Trade: OECD Task Force In Action
licit goods and services including tobacco, alcohol,
human beings and prescription drugs
not used for their intended purpose. In addition,
many offences in the business world are
committed not by criminals but by the companies’
own employees and executives: according
to the UK fraud-prevention service
(CIFAS), 43% of thefts committed in 2012
in the work environment came from inside,
rather than outside, the workplace. 5
According to specialist economists,
the matter of illicit trade and the “llicit economy”
is not a black-and-white issue: it cannot
be dissected neatly with a scalpel under the
watchful gaze of students; it cannot be taken
apart like an engine at the hands of skilled
mechanics. In contrast, illicit trade and the
“illicit economy” are aspects of the informal
economy: a complex spectrum with a wealth
of different shades and hues, from the pale
grey of undeclared labour to the pitch black
of heroine deals, with every imaginable illicit
practice in between.
It is helpful to expand on this point in
terms of the definition of the shadow/informal
economy. 6
The first point of note is that this
is a vast issue: “At the end of the twentieth
century, up to 30 million people performed
shadow work in the EU and up to 48 million
in the OECD... Shadow economy varies
between less than 8% of national income,
and over 30% [of the same], in OECD countries...
there is no exact measure of the size of
the shadow economy (op. cit., note 5).”
Definition: “Market-based production of
goods and services, whether legal or illegal,
that escapes detection in the official estimates
of the GDP... Activities, and the income
derived from them, that circumvent
or otherwise avoid government regulation,
taxation or observation.”
Grey economy: illicit, untaxed, unregulated;
moonlighting; undeclared bonuses
and benefits, bartering and odd jobs
(babysitting).
Black economy: licit products stolen
or sold not for their intended purpose (buying
and selling tobacco and alcohol to take
advantage of tax differentials); drug
pro-duction and trafficking; prostitution;
illegal gambling; counterfeiting/smuggling;
fraud, trafficking in human beings and
arms. While there is no real working drawing
for the illegal economy, things are no
clearer or immutable in terms of its key driver,
organised crime. On the contrary, organised
crime is in a constant state of flux as a
result of myriad different factors (such as opportunism)
that fall outside the scope of this
study.
In just the past decade, criminal entities
have expanded into the illicit trade in
waste and cheap labour, 7 match-fixing and
corruption in professional sport, and trafficking
in human organs and legal/counterfeit
pharmaceuticals. More recently, these
same criminals—and others—have infiltrat-
6
The Shadow Economy, Friedrich Schneider & Colin C. Williams, Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), Westminster,
London, 2013.
7
European Parliament resolution of 11 June 2013 on Organised crime, corruption and money laundering: “The
total number of forced labourers in the Member States is estimated at 880,000, of whom 30% are estimated to
be victims of sexual exploitation and 70% victims of forced labour exploitation.”
8
In April 2013, the Italian government confiscated $1.7 billion dollars in mafia assets, including 43 companies
operating solar arrays and wind farms, all linked to the Sicilian mafia boss, Vito Nicastri, aka “the Lord of
Wind”. Such practices hold huge appeal for the mafia as a result of huge grants, minimal regulation and installation
of alternative energies such as sun and wind in southern Italy. See OilPrice.com: “Renewable energy,
the mafia’s newest playground.”
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