International Journal on Criminology Volume 6, Number 1, Spring 2018 | Page 45

International Journal on Criminology
terms of supporting their activities and objectives, including, of course, sophisticated
procedures facilitating the circulation of money.
Just like legitimate enterprises, criminal entities have used globalization to
spread themselves out, to delocalize themselves, to optimize and develop their services
in a global market that combines the supply and demand of goods, as well
as illegal acts and services. They have also used their colossal and immediately
available revenue to equip themselves with the latest technologies, thereby making
themselves even more successful.
The growth of this threat was such that it seriously worried the major world
nations and led them to act, after almost ten years of unlimited freedom. 3
But September 11, 2001 created other priorities and the goals that had been
set at various international conferences with regard to tackling organized crime
were cast aside in favor of the “War on Terror.”
SEPTEMBER 11: A WINDFALL FOR CRIME
The destruction of the Twin Towers in New York marked the end of the euphoria
surrounding globalization. At the initiative of the United States, the
world closed in on itself once again. It became rigid, as though paralyzed,
and devoted itself almost entirely to the fight against “terrorism.” And the fight
against criminality was abandoned.
For almost a decade, the criminal threat of mafias, yakuza, and other triads,
cartels, and gangs has had an almost free playing field, to the exclusive benefit of
a fight against “terrorism” that has mobilized the lion’s share of manpower and resources.
This is not to say that terrorists are not criminals, but it remains the case
that an entire branch of illicit activities, those that are more specifically geared
toward profit-making, has been cast aside.
However, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the
total revenue of organized crime in the world today stands at 870 billion dollars 4
and the “asset” value of such organized crime at 322 billion dollars. 5 Even though
these figures are neither exact nor verifiable in accounting terms, their sheer scale
is sufficiently clear to reveal that organized crime is an undeniable reality, of which
we will now provide a number of examples.
• Organizations that have developed: The 18 th Street gang is a street gang that
appeared in Los Angeles in the middle of the 1960s. Today it comprises
more than fifty thousand members, spread out across the entire territory
3 ... and in spite of certain initiatives with relative impact. . . See Nass, Alexis “Le G8 et la criminalité
transnationale,” Centre de documentation Sommets G7-G8, accessed July 26, 2017, http://
g7.sciencespo-lyon.fr/spip.php?article159.
4 Yury Fedotov, head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), July 24, 2013.
5 A figure dating from 2005, according to UNODC: http://www.havocscope.com/?s=organized
+crime+global+assets.
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