2 Policing Editorial Felia Allum

Alongside the need to control international ter-
rorism, the challenge of combating organized crime
has forced structural change in policing. For the
UK, the need to focus on the organizations rather
than the commodities has produced the Seri-
ous Organised Crime Agency. Across the world
the recognition that upstream policingor polic-
ing the problem at source rather than trying to
deal with its symptoms in countryhas been
accompanied by a switch of tactics from tradi-
tional arrest and criminal-justice-based outcomes to
a greater focus on disruption and asset seizures, of-
deed, one of the major shifts is the recognition, pro-
fessionally and politically, that success against the
major organized crime threats is as much a matter
of foreign policy as home affairs.
For police forces the need for a common language
of investigation and evidence, common training,
and shared approaches to management, is driving
a much more outward facing, international profes-
sionalism. In the case of the National Policing Im-
provement Agency, for example, international lead-
ership and training is now as integral part of the new
agency as change programmes in the UK, because

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ten using quasi-civil proceedings. This is frequently a it simply no longer tenable to set out to improve
very different sort of policing, carried out by national policing in the UK without, at the same time, taking
agencies and often by international task forces. In- steps to support improvement abroad.

Special Edition on Organized Crime

Editorial by Felia Allum Guest Editor
For a long time, organized crime has been perceived
as merely an Italian problem: images of Hobbess
Leviathan and Dantes Inferno always spring to mind
but confined to Italy and miles away from the White
Cliffs of Dover. There have been a few cases in
Britain, but it was never systematic nor one that
was policed as such.
We have to accept that this is no longer the case
neither in the EU in general nor the UK in particu-
lar: for the last 10-20 years, organized crime, foreign
and native, in its different forms has been present
in British society and has become a British law and
order problem. What we need to be aware of are
its various manifestations: for example, the Italian
Mafia is not going to act in London in the same
way as it does in Palermo. In Palermo, it is part of
the culture and a tacitly accepted/imposed crimi-
nal network that infiltrates and dominates the local
economy, politics, and civil society. In London, the
Italian Mafia is not yet part of the culture and does
not act as a criminal network that can control the
local context. Instead, it exports itself abroad and
acts as a legitimate business while pumping into it
its illegal profits; in this way, it penetrates the legal
economy and disappears.
So, today, we could think of comparing orga-
nized crime to the British Common Cold: we all
know something about it but we do not completely

doi: 10.1093/police/pan013

Dr Felia Allum is a lecturer in Politics and Italian in the Department of European Studies and Modern Languages at the
University of Bath, UK. Research interests: comparative politics, Italian politics, and organized crime (in particular, the
Neapolitan Camorra and other foreign groups, the role of women in organized crime groups and the EUs fight against
organized crime). She has published various articles and books on these subjects, in particular, Camorristi, Politicians and
Businessmen, The Transformation of Organized Crime in Post-war Naples (Leeds: Maney, 2006) and co-edited with Renate
Siebert Organized Crime and the Challenge to Democracy (London: Routledge, 2003).
Editorial
understand how it acts and above all, there is
always a more dangerous illness we should be pro-
tecting ourselves against. Organized crime is thus
becoming a multifaceted common problem, often
invisible and difficult to police, insidious in its net-
works, dangerous because it is extremely violent,
resilient and adaptable, and subtle and respectable.
The Serious Organized Crime Agency highlights
the most damaging forms of organized crime to
the UK as being trafficking of Class A drugs, or-
ganized immigration crime and fraud as well as
high-tech crime, counterfeiting, the use of firearms
by serious criminals, serious robbery, organized ve-
hicle crime, cultural property crime.1 This ignores
the importance of money laundering for organized
crime groups. Money laundering is not a separate
activity for them but is an intrinsic part of their
criminal activity and business. They not only sell
drugs but also seek to invest their profits through
money-laundering activities (in projects such
as legitimate restaurants, shops, buildings, etc.).
Giovanni Falcone always said that it was funda-
mental for those who investigate organized crime
to follow the money, in other words, to understand
the different banking systems and mechanisms and
to have good working relationships with their in-
ternational colleagues as money laundering is not
confined to one state alone.2 So, Italy today may still
be the home of the worst form of organized crime
but it is not the only home, and organized crime is
now present in most if not all of its neighbours, in
different invisible and dangerous forms.
But organized crime also benefits from the incon-
sistencies of the academic community and law en-
forcement agencies. It is clear that organized crime
is not an easy subject to study or investigate. Indeed,
defining and studying organized crime is becom-
ing more and more complicated and difficult. Find-
ing a common and acceptable definition has always
1
http://www.soca.gov.uk/orgCrime/index.html (accessed 2 Feb. 2008).
2
Falcone, G. with Padovani, M. (1992). Men of Honour, The Truth about the Mafia. London: Fourth Estate, see the chapter on
Profits.
Editorial Policing 3
proved a controversial and endless task whether in
the United States of the 1950s or the EU of the 1990s.
Moreover, different disciplines as well as nation-
alities see the phenomenon from different aspects
and angles: a criminologist will be interested in a
criminals profile, a sociologist will be interested in
the social group dynamic, an anthropologist in the
criminals behaviour, a lawyer in how they break
the law, an economist in how they use the economy
in their activities, and a political scientist on the
relationship which the gangs have with politicians.
And they all adopt different theoretical approaches:
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Is organized crime a result of individual rational
choice? Cultural roots? Social education? Or Market
forces?
Added to which, communication between the
academic community and law enforcement agen-
cies, even the Home Office, remains poor: there
appears to be a lack of interest in joining forces
to understand the phenomenon together; there ap-
pears to be a lack of understanding that the academic
community can bring something to the work of law
enforcement agencies, and there can be a sharing of
knowledge and analysis that could provide solutions
to fighting the phenomenon.
We must not forget the role of terrorism in all of
this. Since 9/11, Terrorism has acted as a useful and
convenient decoy for organized crime. In the sense
that journalists, policy makers, politicians, and even
academics, have all concentrated on the different as-
pects of terrorism and ignored the presence and ex-
pansion of organized crime into general civil society,
politics, and the economy. For too long, organized
crime has been associated with specific countries,
seen as their problem, and other countries are only
now accepting with difficulty that it is everyones
problem, a global problem.
This all means that there are many different nar-
ratives but not necessarily communication between
4 Policing Editorial
different disciplines, different schools of thought, or
countries. It is hoped that this issue will help break
down these barriers.3
Putting together a special issue of Policing on or-
ganized crime has proved to be a real and stimu-
lating challenge. As a political scientist, I am inter-
ested in organized crime as a criminal system and
how it manages to interfere with society, the econ-
omy, and politics. Italy might be its home but it
has now moved in with the neighbours. This is why
cooperation among academic communities and law
enforcement agencies is vital. Planning this issue,
I wanted to show some of the different and var-
ied aspects of organized crime. The contributors
present some of these aspects while at the same time
not forgetting that their readership is largely from
the police/practitioner sector. The analysis is always
pertinent from a law enforcement perspective. I have
organized this issue into two sections with an opin-
ion piece and some book reviews. Section one deals
with organized crime groups and their activities and
section two examines various aspects of the fight
against organized crime and the different lessons we
can learn.
Two concepts emerge out of this issue that are
worth noting: firstly, the notion of networks. Orga-
nized crime is often seen as a hierarchical clan or
a rigid business. The notion of networks may help
to analyse new and old groups in different countries
undertaking various activities. Secondly, the impor-
tance of culture in understanding foreign organized
crime groups. They undertake business activities but
culture is often a forgotten variable when trying to
understand internal mechanisms of group dynam-
ics. This issue does not provide any assumptions or
certainties, it attempts to provide a glimpse of a sub-
merged phenomenon and maybe start a discussion.
The first six articles seek to provide a general pic-
ture of different groups and their activities. Klaus
Von Lampe, a German academic from the Free Uni-
3
This is very much one of the objectives of the ECPRs standing group on organized crime to bring disciplines together to
study organized crime. See http://www.essex.ac.uk/ecpr/standinggroups/crime/
4
See also the Von Lampe website: http://www.organized-crime.de/index.html
Felia Allum
versity, Berlin, working on organized crime, pro-
vides a useful discussion: he wants to know: What
is organized crime in Europe and what activities
does it undertake? After many years studying orga-
nized crime and undertaking different projects on
the subject,4 he proposes a new typology for clas-
sifying organized crime in Europe. He argues that
five different constellations of groups are active in
Europe: from a simple and isolated uncoordinated
network to a highly organized and integrated al-
liance between upper and underworld and believes
that the media focuses on the uncoordinated net-
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works rather than the integrated ones. His arti-
cle provides a concrete starting point for thinking
about organized crime groups, organisations, and
activities.
However, how can we define it in order to fight
it? How does it function at local, regional, and in-
ternational levels? Stan Glimore, a Detective Chief
Inspector in Thames Valley Police, offers a local per-
spective on the debate of defining organized crime.
He outlines the problems involved for a policemen
in defining and understanding organized crime in
the British context: SOCA states that he is to tackle
organized crime or even organized serious crime
but not serious organized crime. Thus, he argues
that there is a need to understand organized crime
at the local level but it is not always clear how this
can be done. He believes that all police forces must
seek working definitions and methodologies of or-
ganized crime to help analyse it. He advocates the
use of a social network analysis as a key instrument
in understanding the multifacetedness of organized
crime that he believes, if adopted, would help un-
derstand local and regional organized crime in the
UK.
But would this help us understand the relation-
ship of organized crime with terrorism, if it has
one? This is a difficult question as both types of
organisations function on the margins of legal-
Editorial
ity. Surely, they must have some similarities? Nick
Ridley, a former intelligence analyst at New Scotland
Yards anti-terrorist unit and EUROPOL, analyses
the relationship between organized crime, money
laundering, and terrorism in the UK. He explains
this relationship in terms of the re-evaluated model.
The relationship between organized crime and ter-
rorism has always been a contentious one but is
now being revisited in order to understand whether
there is common convergence between both orga-
nized crime and terrorist groups. His findings and
case studies (for example, the use of offshore en-
tities) show that organized crime and terrorism
combine to maintain the status quo of partial break
down of government and law enforcement and stul-
tify democracy and economic development in order
to perpetuate their action from differing ends of
political separatism or criminal profits.
Fighting organized crime is difficult, especially
if the groups speak a different language and have
different cultural codes. Sander Huisman, a senior
researcher at the Dutch National Crime Squad,
explains how he and his team undertook an in-
vestigation of Chinese criminals/smugglers in the
Netherlands. He highlights all the different problems
involved in surveying and seeking to understand the
business and criminal activities of different ethnic
groups. He argues that in order to understand a
different ethnic organized crime group, it is fun-
damental to understand their culture; without it, it
is impossible to comprehend how the organisation
functions. The non-dit is very important. He ends
his article by proposing a list of recommendations of
how to investigate foreign organized crime groups.
Franco Roberti, head of the anti-mafia pool in
Naples, investigates both the Neapolitan Camorra
and foreign groups (including the Chinese Mafia)
everyday. Here, he reflects on the current state of
the Camorra which has recently been outshone
by the Calabrian Ndrangeta but its presence and
activities are still as dangerous as ever both in Naples
and abroad. He examines the pervasive nature of
the Neapolitan Camorra: from its local presence
in the different districts of the city to its role in
Editorial Policing 5
the global system. It is active in all sectors from
extortion to money laundering and corrupting
politicians. The Camorra is a warning to us all. And
the Albanian Mafia has learnt well from their Italian
counterparts.
Jana Arsorska, a young Ph.D. student from the
Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, maps
out the changing role of Albanian organized crime
groups and criminal markets: human trafficking
and prostitution in the Balkan Triangle (Albania
KosovoMacedonia) has decreased in the last
10 years. She seeks to understand whether this is
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a result of anti-organized crime measures. Her con-
clusions are interesting: although there has been
a political will, this has not always been trans-
lated into effective anti-trafficking measures. She
warns that in order to have an effective imple-
mentation of the newly ratified laws and efficient
fight against organized crime, diversified long-term
strategies which approach organized crime as a so-
cial, and not only as a law enforcement problem, are
needed.
The second section seeks to deal directly with
law enforcement issues and the fight against
organized crime. Finally Clive Harfield, a police
officer and associate professor at the University
of Wollongong, presents a historical overview of
policing arrangements in the UK in the fight against
organized crime and shows how this form of crime
challenges many of the established paradigms that
form the basis of British policing. Organized crime
is a complex and multifaceted form of crime that the
British police are having problems in understanding
and dealing with. Indeed, there appears to be a
disjuncture between the institutional discourse
(establishment of SOCA and new investigative CPS
powers acknowledging the complex and global
nature of organized crime) and the practical reality
of a limited police infrastructure intended for
traditional policing functions that does not extend
to, nor understand, the problem of organized crime.
Are the same problems replicating themselves at
the European level? Are there misunderstandings
and incomprehension? Ludo Block reflects on his
6 Policing Editorial
experience as a police officer and liaison officer in
the Netherlands to offer an interesting contribution
on the state of police cooperation in the EU, in other
words, cooperation between forces across borders.
He provides some concrete examples to show what
is happening. He draws three conclusions: firstly,
although there is room for improvement, there is
significant cooperation between police in Europe
which continuously takes place; secondly, coopera-
tion is difficult because of the logistic dynamics of
international cooperation (influenced by many dif-
ferent factors such as different police cultures, legal
systems); and lastly, joint investigations are proving
successful and using innovative techniques. This is
a difficult area to research but it is clear that it is
necessary in order to avoid superficial claims about
the state of play of European police cooperation
[. . .] anecdotic evidence certainly does not suffice
to present an accurate picture.
The USs history of prosecuting organized
crime is a long and a rather successful one. Joe
Wheatley, a trial attorney for the US government,
presents an overview of the American RICO (Racke-
teer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act. He
shows how initially it was established to prosecute
Mafia-type organisations but has evolved into be-
ing used against the new and dynamic forms of
crime, which strictly speaking may not qualify as
organized crime such as street gangs. In conclusion,
he demonstrates how RICO is flexible and allows
for the prosecution of new criminal organisations
which are different from mafias but which still need
to be targeted by specific legislation. He shows that
legislation needs to be flexible and not just concen-
trate on membership or criminal activities.
Nicholas Fyfe and I look at another aspect of the
fight against organized crime: state witness protec-
tion programmes. Mafiosi can be placed on a witness
protection programme whereby they are given po-
lice protection and must testify against their former
associates. So far, these programmes for former
Felia Allum
mafiosi have been very successful both in the United
States and Italy as they have provided alternatives to
a life in prison in exchange for information about
their criminal associates and activities. In this article,
we look at the Italian experience in an international
perspective to see what lessons can be learned
especially as the EU seeks to develop some form of
common witness programme. We argue that there
are three main lessons that can be learned from
Italy:
1. it is important to have an independent state wit-
ness protection programme
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2. it is fundamental to support criminals re-
integration back into society so that they do not
re-offend; and
3. the role of the media is important in shaping the
publics perception and ultimately their accep-
tance of the programme.
In addition to these articles, Hugo Brady, a re-
search fellow at the Centre for European Reform,
provides an opinion piece on the EU and its role in
the fight against organized crime. He discusses the
historical development of policies in this area and
highlights the different formal and informal powers
that police officers have in the EU. He argues that EU
should not seek to centralise law enforcement coop-
eration in Europol and Eurojust, but rather that it
should be the focal point for a new pan-European
community of police officers like the customs offi-
cers. He makes a convincing case for a European
criminal intelligence model (ECIM) a non-state
policing plan for coordinating investigations against
organized crime throughout the EU according to a
method called intelligence-led policing and believes
that this is the future.
It is hoped that this collection of articles provides
a glimpse of what organized crime is, what it is doing
to the UK and the world, and provokes some discus-
sion about the way forward in trying to understand
and defeat our common cold.