Crime gangs a major threat to global security, economy

Crime gangs a major threat to global security, economy
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

WASHINGTON, FEB 15: Asia has become a focal point for narcotics and arms-smuggling and brokering a wide range of illicit deals including transfer of controlled technologies between Europe and the region with well-organised criminal gangs operating from India, Pakistan and some other countries, says a US Government report.

``Criminal organisations with international networks centred in India, Pakistan, Turkey, the UAE and Cyprus, operate within a commercial tradition of moving contraband goods,'' the report International Crime Threat Assessment, prepared in December, 2000, and released to the press here yesterday said.

``The region is a focal point for narcotics and arms smuggling between Europe and Asia and for brokering a wide range of illicit deals, including evasion of US or other sanctions and transfer of technologies and materials associated with weapons of mass destruction,'' it said.

Major ports and commercial cities in the region, particularly Mumbai, Karachi, Dubai, Istanbul and Cyprus ``are key centres of criminal activity'', the report, jointly prepared by Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotic and Law Enforcement Matters Rand Beers, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Crime Division Bruce Schwartz and National Security Council Director for international crime, said.

Criminal groups based in these countries were involved in underground dealings, including money-laundering, arms and narco-trafficking and intellectual property piracy, it said.

India's well-developed transportation infrastructure, porous coastline and lenient export policies and controls have played into the hands of groups smuggling drugs, gems and other prized contraband, the report said.

Although major commercial centres in these countries have modern financial services, these gangs hide funds and arrange illicit financing through complex, virtually impenetrable underground banking systems, it said.

Perhaps Indian criminal syndicates, particularly Mumbai-based crime groups, became involved in international drug trafficking in the mid-to-late 1980s when the Iran-Iraq war disrupted traditional South-east Asian heroin trafficking routes from Pakistan through Iran, to Turkey, the report said.

Indian criminal syndicates also may be involved in arms-trafficking, alien smuggling and trafficking in women.

Some smuggling groups in Central America specialise in moving US-bound illegal immigrants from Asia, especially China and India, it added.

The report said that the world in 2010 may see the emergence of ``criminal states'' that are not merely safe havens for international criminal activities but support them as a matter of course.

The involvement of `criminal states' in the community of nations could undermine international finance and commerce.

``Criminal states may also adopt the political agendas ofstates of concern and terrorist groups,'' it said.

Criminal organisations are likely to penetrate troubled banking and commercial sectors while unscrupulous politicians and political parties may align themselves with these groups for financial and other support, the report said.

By 2010, international criminal groups are most likely to be particularly proficient at exploiting computer networks, it said.

Organised crime groups that have access to formidable weapons arsenals may assume a far more significant role in brokering illicit arms transactions for foreign armies, militias or insurgencies, displacing the brokers and businesses that dominate today's gray arms market.

So far, the threat of organised crime involvement in acquiring and trafficking nuclear, biological or chemical weapons of mass destruction (WMD) has been more potential than real.

This potential may be realised by the end of the decade if the political and economic climates in countries possessing and seeking WMD capabilities changed to make engineering such transactions more practical and less risky.