The Consolidation of Organized Criminal Activity

I read an interesting story from the Associated Press about organized crime in Japan. Japanese Gangs are consolidating their ranks, which gives them more leverage and power. According to the article Japanese gangs bring in "billions of dollars a year from extortion, gambling, prostitution, Internet pornography, guns, drugs, and real-estate and construction kickbacks."

"Consolidation makes good business sense in Japanese gangland. They are tightly organized in a pyramid style, with gangsters paying cuts to their bosses, and their bosses paying increasingly large fees to their overlords. In exchange, members get protection and help in fending off rivals and can use their affiliation with a major syndicate to pressure extortion victims."

In the West, there have also been trends noted on organized gangs consolidating and often joining forces to commit crimes. Quite often different parts of the same criminal activity are done by different gangs working in collusion with each other. This makes it more difficult for the authorities to investigate.

I have written several posts on this:

Rumor of a Partnership Between Organized Fraud Gangs and Terrorists?
McAfee Study on Organized Crime and the Internet
Organized Fraud Gangs
Fraud Gangs Plant Insiders

Although, it hasn't been substantiated yet, I'm guessing that a portion of the fraudulent websites related to the Katrina Disaster were set up by some of these gangs. The FBI estimated that 60 percent of them were being hosted outside the United States. Thousands of these sites have popped up in the aftermath of Katrina.

These criminals count on working in numerous law enforcement jurisdictions to confuse investigative and prosecution efforts. In the end, to be successful, perhaps law enforcement should learn from this and look at breaking down the barriers that "jurisdictions" create?

For the full story (recommended) by the AP, click on the title of this post.