PaCCS Policy Briefing: Understanding Transnational Organised Crime in the 21st Century

PaCCS POLICY BRIEFING

Understanding Transnational Organised Crime in the 21st Century

Palermo Street Scene -Palermo (Sicily) has suffered decades of Cosa Nostra criminality

Foreword In September 2018, we brought together experts in Transnational Organised Crime (TNOC) to explore findings from a two-year programme of research into the phenomenon.1 We deliberately weighted the numbers in favour of non-academic expertise: policy-makers and practitioners (including police & lawyers), representatives from industry & non-governmental organisations. This ensured that our deliberations – informed by fresh scholarship – would benefit from diverse and grounded experience and authoritative insight from different sectors wrestling with such varied manifestations of TNOC as human trafficking and modern slavery, drug and arms dealing, moneylaundering and cyber-crime.

This policy briefing note captures the key findings to emerge from our deliberations (run under the Chatham House Rule to encourage open expression of opinions).

We have checked the draft with participants to ensure the text is a fair reflection of points and priorities articulated.

The workshop took place shortly before the Home Secretary published the Modern Slavery Annual Report2 as well as the UK’s Serious and Organised Crime Strategy (with Research Priorities being produced in both instances). Our conference was fortunate enough to be provided with a pre-briefing on the latter, and its related Research Priorities.3 In his “Foreword” to the Strategy, the Secretary of State writes that that Organised Crime is: … “… the most deadly national security threat faced by the UK, and persistently erodes our economy and our communities. Serious and organised criminals operating in the UK sexually exploit children and ruthlessly target the most vulnerable, ruining lives and blighting communities. Their activities cost us at least £37 billion each year.”

The Home Secretary highlights the fact that this threat “knows no borders”, with networks spanning many countries and with cyberspace enabling criminal operations that wreak havoc and harm on one community to be run by protagonists operating in a different jurisdiction.

Our Policy Briefing goes with the grain of HMG’s new Strategy, but there are differences of emphasis which add value to the Government’s mission. Any effective campaign to undermine the most pernicious effects of TNOC requires a thorough understanding of both the local and global, which research can bring; there also need to be better metrics. We support the Government’s call for a whole-system approach, but this needs to be properly resourced with all relevant data made freely available to all.

The power of this Note derives from the combination of talent and expertise brought together to address these complex challenges. I hope that these authoritative recommendations will be given the attention they deserve.

Dr Tristram Riley-Smith Partnership for Conflict, Crime & Security Research 12 December 2018

1

www.paccsresearch.org.uk/tnoc-theme-innovation-awards/

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/ system/uploads/attachment data/file/749346/2018 UK Annual Report on Modern Slavery.pdf 2

www.gov.uk/government/publications/serious-and-organisedcrime-strategy-2018; www.gov.uk/government/publications/ serious-and-organised-crime-home-office-research-prioritiesapril-2018-to-march-2021.

3

“Money-Laundering” – Corrupt Lawyers and Accountants support the laundering of TNOC money.

Insights 1. Local factors, evolving over time, play a critical part in shaping and enabling forms of organised criminality: if we don’t understand these, we can’t effectively counter or disrupt TNOC;

• poverty, conflict, gender, inequality, inadequate law

enforcement and political corruption feature in the catalogue of risk factors that initiate and sustain TNOC at a local level;

• micro-culture (e.g. values, narratives, language and

ideology) is another enabler, providing - for instance - one group with the justification to exploit others, based on ethnicity, faith or gender;

• underlying factors will recur across different milieux,

driving the need for comparative analysis.

2. Flexible long-distance networks that cross regional / political boundaries combine with strong local power- structures with to make the TNOC phenomenon more resilient than has been assumed;

•

these networks are complex, including participants who are (to a greater or lesser degree) distinct from the criminal protagonists who drive TNOC activities: vulnerable victims and recruits; complicit consumers; and professional enablers (helping, for instance, with the laundering of criminal money);

3. Technology delivers new challenges: cyberspace creates an environment in which TNOC can thrive, facilitating traditional crimes, creating new ones (eg as ransomware) and providing anonymity and protection to the criminal;

4. At times of social upheaval, or in places where legitimate political authority is absent, TNOC can deliver stability and supply essential licit - as well as illicit - goods and services; so, the dismantling of TNOC structures can carry unintended consequences, especially where this creates a vacuum; 5. A multiplicity of authorities, experts and sectors have a contribution to make to the challenge of countering TNOC; but they are poorly-aligned, poorlyresourced and deprived of shared data 6. Metrics are incomplete and often non-existent: we struggle to develop effective ways to classify and measure the threat from TNOC and the harmful disruption it creates; this adds to difficulties faced by those delivering TNOC policy and practice; 7. TNOC policies can undermine the rule of law and human rights: for instance, measures to counter human smuggling can negatively affect civil society, including volunteers who provide assistance to asylum seekers and immigrants; 8. Communication challenges beset those seeking to disrupt TNOC; better, and more, messages need to be developed & deployed: to help society understand & engage with victims; to prevent the recruitment & direction of TNOC members; and to tackle the consumption of criminal commodities and delivery of professional services (such as lawyers & accountants forming shell companies to service money-laundering).

Recommendations 1. Use Microscope and Telescope: all those engaged in TNOC policy and practice must take account of the micro and the macro:

• An effective understanding of the drivers of TNOC

requires scrutiny and interpretation of local factors (including language, criminal opportunities and micro- cultures) as well as broad patterns and cross-cutting lessons that come from comparative analysis;

2. Conduct Network Analysis: interventions by those countering TNOC need to recognise the complex nature of its channels and adapt strategies tailored to individual components or nodes:

• knowledge of the social structures within which

victims and offenders are embedded can help us understand pathways into TNOC (and potential avenues for vulnerable actors to escape). National bodies responsible for judicial standards should engage with these issues.4

3. Novel techniques should be developed to monitor and counter TNOC in cyberspace;

• research into other technological developments

(eg AI, machine learning, autonomous vehicles and data storage) is required to help understand and anticipate how these will effect TNOC. 4. Plan for Unintended Consequences: invest in local knowledge when dismantling TNOC structures, to develop solutions that minimise risk; “back-fill”, to avoid the formation of a power vacuum or create new opportunities for new TNOCs, and avoid disadvantaging already marginalised groups (such as migrants forced into low-wage labour or sex-work); 5. Connect and Collaborate: Transform the quality and resourcing of partnerships to tackle TNOC; public

bodies must take the lead in engendering a culture of collaboration across many different sectors; critically, they should:

• work towards co-ownership of the problem and co-

production of the solutions • Government(s) and international bodies must allocate sufficient funds and capabilities (layered from local to international) to make a difference;5 6. Strategic Priorities: we need to develop better ways to direct - and measure success in - the fight against TNOC, in particular prioritising by harm; the National Policing College could support this with help from academic research.

• share data and knowledge more broadly (including about what does and does not work).

7. Measures to counter TNOC must be applied responsibly and ethically to avoid the erosion of societal trust; do nothing, for instance, to undermine freedoms of association & expression; 8. Communication Strategies: Policy-makers & Practitioners should seek the help of expert communicators to develop strategies that: reduce harm; promote data-sharing; prevent or disrupt membership of TNOC organisations; and deter criminal engagement with professionals.

Eg - the Bar Standards Board in England & Wales; the Faculty of Advocates in Scotland; the Bar of Northern Ireland; the Consiglio Nazionale Forense in Italy; the American Bar Association in the USA.

4

The launch of a £200m Youth Endowment Fund by the UK’s Home Secretary in October 2018 is a welcome example: it is intended to focus on those children and young people most at risk of involvement in serious youth violence, aiming to identify interventions that steer them away from crime and violence.

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“Gangs Are Not Families� -The Government of Trinidad & Tobago is working to stop gang violence in Port of Spain

“Linked Arms” - A “whole-system” approach needs experts and authorities to connect and collaborate.

PaCCS The Partnership for Conflict, Crime & Security Research was initiated by the research councils which now form part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). The Partnership aimed to deliver high quality and cutting edge research to help improve our understanding of current and future global security challenges (focusing on the themes of Conflict, Cybersecurity and Transnational Organised Crime). It has brought together researchers from across disciplines to work on innovative projects and created opportunities for knowledge exchange between academia, government, industry and the not-for-profit sector.6 In 2016, PaCCS funded eleven Cross-Disciplinary Innovation Awards to researchers under its TNOC Theme, with a twelfth award to Professor David Wall (University of Leeds) to produce a related “Academic Research Synthesis Report” entitled Understanding Transnational Organised Crime.7 We are grateful to these projects for the contribution they made to our TNOC Conference in September 2018: Dr Kristofer Allerfeldt (University of Exeter): “Negating Humanity”: Modern Slavery in its Historical Context and its Implications for Policy Prof Georgios Antonopoulos (Teesside University): The Financial Aspects of the Trade in Counterfeit Products: An Exploratory Study Dr Adam Baird (Coventry University): Breaking Bad: How transnational drug trafficking creates violent masculinities in local Caribbean communities in Port of Spain Prof Kevin Bales (Nottingham University, formerly with University of Hull) Modern Slavery: Meaning and Measurement

Prof Sergio Carrera (Queen Mary University of London): Anti-Smuggling Policies and their Intersection with Humanitarian Assistance and Social Trust Prof Joanna Drugan (University of East Anglia): Transnational Organised Crime and Translation (TOCAT): Improving police communication across languages Dr Christiana Gregoriou (University of Leeds): Representation of transnational human trafficking in presentday news media, true crime, and fiction Dr Nicholas Lord (University of Manchester): The (Mis) Use of Corporate Vehicles by Transnational Organised Crime Groups in the Concealment, Conversion and Control of Illicit Fin Prof Math Noortmann (Coventry University): The Maritime Dimension of Transnational Organized Crime: Engaging Indonesian Law Enforcement Agencies and Coastal Communities in the Land-Sea Nexus Dr Giacomo Persi Paoli (RAND Europe): Behind the curtain: an investigation of the illicit trade in firearms and explosives on the dark net Dr Walter Wehrmeyer (University of Surrey): UNOC: Understanding the Nexus of Organised Crime: Policing in Marginalised Communities linked with organised Crime: Best Practice Network Development

6 Active PaCCS grants will be in place until December 2021.

But UKRI has made the decision to start moving PaCCS into legacy mode, with no further research commissioning initiatives under PaCCS. UKRI remains committed to funding innovative, multi-disciplinary research to enhance our knowledge of global security challenges; but future grants wil be funded through other channels.

7 www.paccsresearch.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/ TNOC-Research-Integration-Report-FINAL-Dec-17.pdf

Cover image: “Hacker” - Stock image 502860430 Copyright: D-Keine. This work is licensed under iStock standard license.

“Money-Laundering” – image supplied by Prof Georgios Antonopoulos, with thanks.

“Gangs Are Not Families” – image supplied by Dr Adam Baird, with thanks.

“Palermo” – image by Cristina Gottardi (https://unsplash. com/@cristina_gottardi) “Linked Arms” – image from Raw Pixel (https://unsplash.com/ @rawpixel)