By Annette Hübschle, senior researcher, Organised Crime and Money Laundering Programme, Institute for Security Studies (ISS) Cape Town, South Africa.
Many myths persist when it comes to organised forms of criminality. The concept of ‘organised crime’, for example, often invokes popular notions of the Italian mafia, Chinese Triads or the Japanese Yakuza as portrayed in many Hollywood blockbusters. In the local context it throws up images of Nigerian drug dealers, Mozambican armed robbers or Cape gangsters. The conviction of South Africa’s former national police commissioner Jackie Selebi, and revelations by murder suspect Glen Agliotti about the flourishing relationship between corrupt civil servants, politicians and criminals suggests that we may have to broaden the repertoire of the ‘usual suspects’ when it comes to organised crime analysis.
The Organised Crime and Money Laundering Programme at the ISS in partnership with the Southern African Police Chiefs Cooperating Organisation (SARPCCO) has conducted a research study into organised crime in southern Africa over the past three years. The objective was to provide evidence-based research on this criminal phenomenon. The study has gone the distance to dispel popular myths.
The research looked at selected organised criminal activities and observed levels of prevalence in twelve southern African countries. Due to a lack of statistical and quantitative data in most countries covered, the study relies mostly on a qualitative methodology. Representatives from law enforcement agencies, government departments and para-statal bodies, civil society, business and professional associations, academics, prisoners, former gang members and members of the broader communities whose lives have been impacted by organised crime, were consulted in one-on-one interviews, focus groups, observations and workshops. A team of field researchers led by a research coordinator collected the data. The research was guided by a working definition of organised crime which was jointly developed and adopted by the heads of criminal investigation departments in southern Africa and the research team.
The research disproved popular notions of organised crime being structured like the Italian mafia, with a ‘godfather’- like figurehead leading the criminal organization. Among the features which emerged were that organised crime in southern Africa is committed by structured multi-national networks that adhere to the vagaries of supply and demand. The notion of specific nationalities being the bad apples is incorrect. While foreign nationals may be the runners or mid-management of organised crime networks, locals usually work hand in hand with them. Nigerian nationals may be involved with trafficking specific drugs, Chinese nationals may be linked to the poaching and trafficking of rare species but this is made possible by the helping hands of locals and international liaison persons in bigger transnational networks. These networks are loosely organised; different ‘service providers’ are used on the basis of need, and easily replaced. Networks make use of different skill sets. A transnational car theft network needs different types of ‘experts’ who can steal or hijack vehicles, drivers, painters, electricians, mechanics, border officials who allow free passage, sellers, and many more. Networks shape and shift service providers, activities and methods on an ongoing basis. The fluidity provides protection from detection by law enforcement.
Trafficking in stolen motor vehicles, ivory, diamonds and drugs are still the mainstays of organised criminal business in southern Africa but venture criminalists have diversified. Cigarettes, alcohol, fuel, firearms, counterfeit commodities, cattle, foodstuffs and even people are smuggled across regional borders. Local drug consumer markets have grown substantially in the past 5 years, rendering southern Africa no longer a transshipment destination for cocaine from South America and heroin from South Asia en route to the northern markets of Europe and America. Precursor chemicals are smuggled into the region, which has led to the mushrooming of clandestine drug laboratories. The research also covered armed robberies, smuggling of endangered species and rare resources, financial crime and money laundering and people smuggling and human trafficking. ‘New’ forms of crime were identified such as the smuggling of counterfeit pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, illegal fishing and illegal logging. Portrayed by some commentators as a major organised crime threat to southern Africa, few cases of human trafficking were detected. The disparity might be attributable to the conflation of human trafficking with people smuggling and prostitution. The smuggling of great numbers of people across regional and international borders, the use of forged travel documents and other immigration offences featured prominently.
The geopolitical and economic environment in individual countries amplifies the significance of specific criminal activities. The research also showed that although economic crimes may not be as prevalent as other forms of crime, statistically their impact on the society and the economy are far reaching. Organised crime networks have diversified their criminal interests; instead of dealing in one specific crime only, they may be involved in several legitimate and illegitimate operations at any given time. The proceeds are laundered through a variety of money laundering mechanisms including the acquisition of real estate and other luxurious assets.
The region’s long and porous borders are often cited as a source of vulnerability in southern Africa. The research has shown that criminals prefer legal border points: international airports, ports and land border posts. Why swim through crocodile infested rivers or trek over dangerous mountain passes on the road less travelled, when it is easy to cross with your smuggled commodities undetected or with a little help from a friend?
Powerful alliances between criminal networks, law enforcement official, civil servants, politicians, politically connected people and business corporations propel new markets, methods and routes. Often considered a type of organised crime, corruption is also a facilitator of organised crime. This includes petty corruption involving staff at border posts to allow contraband or smuggled commodities to pass without muster, police officials warning criminals of planned roadblocks and police operations, or airline managers who manipulate flight rosters to accommodate cabin attendants willing to smuggle narcotics. The research revealed the important role that corruption, petty and grand, plays in sustaining organised crime.
The research paints a rather somber picture but also recognizes the strides being made by regional law enforcement agencies to combat organised crime. The realities of globalisation have put into gear a number of responses. While law enforcement capacity, coordination, investigation skills and regional cooperation should be enhanced, a holistic approach incorporating non-law enforcement sectors of government, civil society and local communities in control and harm reduction measures will make a measurable impact. The EROC study has shown that more research is needed. We hope to launch another research project on criminal governance in selected African hub cities.
Credit: ISS, Cape Town.
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