OC24 Podcast

Underworlds with Mark Shaw is returning for another season. Mark sits down with authors to discuss their investigations into the murky world of organized crime. In season two, we hear about a range of stories such as money laundering and cryptocurrency; the 'Ndrangheta's expansion from Calabria, Italy to other countries of Europe. Also the story of a leading South African police officer, who was t...

This session will explore how armed groups in West and Central Africa draw revenue, resources, and legitimacy through their engagement with (il)licit economies. As greater focus in research to date has been given to the question of armed group financing, this session will instead focus on the how armed groups build, or degrade, legitimacy in their interactions with illicit economies. It will consi...

In this discussion, the panellists discuss organized corruption in Asia and the Pacific. Louise Taylor, Director - Observatory of Illicit Economies in Asia and the Pacific, Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime Cynthia Gabriel, Centre to Combat Corruption & Cronyism (C4) Grant Walton, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University. Associate Professor Grant...

This book aims to highlight the causes why the Prohibition Era led to an evolution of the New York mob from a rural, ethnic and small-scale to an urban, American and wide-scale crime. The temperance project, advocated by the WASP elite since the early nineteenth century, turned into prohibition only after the end of WWI with the enactment of the Eighteenth Amendment. By considering the success tha...

The evolution of cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies continues to transform organised crime, cybercrime, and financial crime. This panel brings together researchers exploring emerging trends in cryptocurrency and financial crimes. Key topics in presentations will include: the emerging illicit and grey economies on digital platforms, opportunities for cryptocurrency financial crime in virtua...

Indonesia, straddling Southeast Asia and Oceania along the equator, is the world’s largest archipelagic state with roughly 17,500 islands. Its status as an archipelago was formalized by the 1957 Djuanda Declaration and later affirmed in the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which sets out nations’ maritime rights and responsibilities. This extensive maritime domain giv...

The role of technology in combating organized crime emerges as a central theme in our webinar discussion, featuring six esteemed speakers who contribute diverse perspectives on this critical issue. We delve into how advancements in technology are reshaping strategies against various forms of organized crime, particularly focusing on illicit weapons and human trafficking. The presentations highligh...

The panel entitled "Gangs: Insights from India, Colombia, and Jamaica" presents a comprehensive exploration of gang dynamics across these three diverse contexts. The discourse initiates with Sangeeta Roy, who delves into the ethno migrant masculinities of Bihari youth in India, elucidating how they navigate their identities amidst societal stigmas and educational barriers. Subsequent presentations...

This panel will discuss the results of a research lead by Fundación Ideas para la Paz that highlights several challenges in the so called “Urban Peace Negotiations” with organized crime in Medellín, the second largest and prosperous city in Colombia. Colombia’s National Government is trying to implement a negotiation policy with different kind of actors, including conventional actors of armed conf...

Alessandro Moretti’s ‘The Rise and Rise of Illegal Ticket Touting’ is a criminological ethnography of the black market in buying and selling tickets to live events and is the first criminological study in the United Kingdom to explore ticket touts. The opening chapter acts as a position statement for the entire book. Moretti delivers a detailed socio-legal analysis of debates surrounding touting a...

This panel will assess illicit networks and fentanyl in Brazil, Mexico, and other Latin American countries using the 3rd GEN Gang literature and criminal insurgency as lenses. Fentanyl and other synthetic drugs have risen in importance and in the political rhetoric surrounding them due to high numbers of overdose deaths particularly in the United States. This panel aims to discuss the organized cr...

We will share our experiences in the great environment of the 24 Hours Conference on Global Organised Crime. Particularly how mafiaindanke e. V. was founded, the difficulties we encountered and how we managed to find our role in the public discourse. During the discussion, we will show the audience one possible way we can respond as a civil society that could be viable in other countries. How we h...

Axel Hemmerling, Ludwig Kendzia, David Klaubert and Margherita Bettoni spent three years investigating when and how the Calabrian 'ndrangheta arrived in East Germany. They looked into newspaper archives, searched property register files, used FOIAs and talked to several sources in Germany and in Italy. In the process, they came across a major, still publicly unknown police investigation against th...

One of the most efficient tools for promoting transparency, accountability, and good governance is open data technology. This panel will offer examples of how open data platforms can be used effectively and will consider opportunities for expanding the use of such data to improve good governance in Southeast Asia. The panel aims to shed light on the practical applications of open data in combating...

During this session, panellists will discuss the latest developments, challenges, and outlooks on Southeast Asia's drug trade, alongside UNODC’s ongoing support to enhance cross-border collaboration and information sharing. The region's drug trade has been marked by a decade of growth in the production and trafficking of synthetic drugs, particularly methamphetamine. While seizures of the drug ret...

This Roundtable Discussion will examine the interplay between politics and economics in the frontier peripheries and urban heartlands of Pakistan. Speakers Junaid Qureshi, Director European Foundation for South Asian Studies Dr. Prem Mahadevan, Specialised in research on organised crime, intelligence and irregular warfare. Taha Siddiqui, The Dissident Club, An award winning investigative Pakistani...

This Roundtable Discussion will examine the question of how organized crime and political militancy interact in the Indian context. It will look at the role of mafia syndicates in perpetrating international terrorism, and will focus on Mumbai’s D-Company and drug gangs along the India-Pakistan border. The Mumbai bombings of 1993, which were carried out by D-Company, remain perhaps the strongest ex...

This panel will discuss the main issues with illegal natural resources export and illegal tourism as well as the criminal activities, in relation to “China's mafia invasion” of the East Siberia region which was historically linked to the Silk Road. They will then talk about criminal law versus environmental direct action in democratic societies with the aim to redefine the socially acceptable boun...

The practice of ‘cuckooing’, where vulnerable people have their homes taken over, has generated significant policy and practice attention across the UK over the last ten years. While not exclusively, this has often been associated with the workings of illicit drug markets, with connections made to the activities of organised crime and the supply model known as ‘county lines’. Involving a range of...

The Director of GITOC, Mark Shaw, will discuss his new book Breaking the Bombers: How the Hunt for PAGAD Created a Crack Police Unit . This talk touches on the features, implications, and risks associated with vigilantism, as well as the most effective responses within the framework of the rule of law, aiming to reduce violence and curtail criminal activities. Speakers Mark Shaw, Director, GI-TOC...

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacts on all aspects of the society, economy and politics - and organized crime is among those affected globally. This panel discusses different aspects of how criminal groups have adapted during the pandemic including the look into the most common modi operandi used by organized criminals in the theft of medicines and medical devices. This trend is amplified by the glo...

This panel will discuss the latest research on women in OCGs in Latin America. Speakers will discuss their latest research and the chair will raise various issues. DEBORAH BONELLO Freelance video journalist based in Mexico City. ELAINE CAREY Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Oakland University in Michigan and historian of Mexico, crime, social movements, and gender. PATRICIA FIGUEROA Res...

"The Irish organized crime milieu has been recognized for its distinction, derived from its characterization as ‘family gangs,’ its international mobility nature, and the influence of paramilitary groups - while remains understudied. On a transnational level, criminal markets across Ireland and the United Kingdom are highly integrated and adaptable to changing trends and events. However, Ireland i...

OMCGs have been implicated in a range of organised criminal activities including narcotics manufacture and trafficking, prostitution, firearms trafficking, extortion and money laundering. In this session, four presentations will examine the structure and operation of OMCGs from Australian and Dutch perspectives. The first paper focuses on the micro-level processes of Australian outlaw motorcycle g...

Cocaine Hoppers provides empirical evidence to explain the involvement of Nigerians in the international cocaine trade. Investigating the criminogenic environment created by the Nigerian “state crisis”, it traces the geographic, demographic, economic, hist orical, political, and cultural factors that have contributed to the cocaine culture in Nigeria. These elements have led to a society that reli...