Organized crime is not bound by national borders or vast oceans. Worldwide, groups of criminals bind together and terrorize each other and the people of their nations. Though many countries worldwide struggle with organized crime independently, organized crime is an international dilemma.
The people of these states often see organized crime cross over from one country to the next, plaguing nations. Organized crime grows rapidly, it is like a virus or societal infection. One of the deadliest groups of transnational organized crime in existence today is Mara Salvatrucha, better known as the MS-13.The MS-13 is said to be the deadliest gang in the world. It all began in the 1980’s in Los Angeles, California.
Salvadorans were entering the United States to flee the civil war. Upon reaching Los Angeles, they were harassed by the local Mexican gangs. Their only remedy was to band together as one for their defense. In the last twenty plus years, the MS-13 has grown tremendously. They operate in at least forty-two of the fifty U. S.
states with at least 3,000 members residing in our very own Northern Virginia. Though this band of organized criminals is U. S. ased, it is not exclusive to U. S.
anymore. (The History Channel website)The heinous crimes committed by MS-13 gang members caused many of them to be incarcerated. Their lack of legal immigrant status in the U. S.
subsequently caused their deportations. In the early 1990’s, Immigration and Naturalization Services (“INS”) was formed and deported over 1,000 MS-13 gang members to El. Salvador. (Gangs OR Us Website) The deportations of these dangerous criminals did not fix the problem, it merely spread it. Today in Latin America, MS-13 members are in almost every Central American country.They are ubiquitous in Honduras and El Salvador causing extreme levels of violence in our country and theirs’.
Travel across the Atlantic Ocean from the Americas to find Europe. From youth in Great Britain during the 1960’s emerged the skinhead subculture. Skinheads began as a “multi-racial, working class youth subculture with a clearly defined hostility to the police, government… [and] an expression of the discontent that many young people felt at the time. ” (Steven) Though today we associate the term “skinhead” with the American neo-Nazi culture, this is not how it started.
The early British skinhead subculture involved camaraderie between the working class skinheads and the Jamaican immigrants living in Great Britain at the time. The two groups shared interest in the same music and their own idiom. By the late 1970’s, the British skinhead subculture spread to other countries on the European continent and North America. However by this time, skinheads had transformed.
They were no longer the multi-cultural clique they once were. Skinheads had not only spread to other countries, they had spread as violent, racist gangs. In the U.S. two separate skinhead groups emerged: the racist skinheads and the nonracist skinheads.
Racist skinheads in the U. S. are infamous. Their ties with other white supremacist groups like the Aryan Nation make them especially dangerous.
Internationally, racist skinhead groups, such as the Bloed, Bodem, Eer en Trouw – a Belgian neo-Nazi group allegedly responsible for a terrorist attack in London – still prevail. (Diab) The Chinese Triads began in China as a resistance group of the Ch’ing dynasty and their existence dates back to the early 1900’s, at least.Triad crime, however, is a little different than the impetuous crimes of the MS-13 and the racist crimes of white supremacist groups. Triad groups are illicit businessmen and exist in North America, Australia, South Africa, Taiwan, and other countries as well. Though there are some groups that are more like your average street gang, many of them are highly organized and well-established businessmen.
(PBS) Triads are well known for human smuggling. In fact, 2. 5 million people are forced into sexual exploitation and 56% of them are in Asia and the Pacific. Global Initiative to Fight Fight Human Trafficking) Other well-established, yet ruthless, gangs are some of Italy’s Mafias, such as the Camorra.The Camorra originated in Naples and, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), is still currently active in the United States.
Italian Mafias are known for their ruthlessness. Dating back as far as the 1800’s, Italian Mafia members are some of the most notorious gangsters worldwide with ties in Europe, North America and South America. Federal Bereau of Investigation) Some of the key members of these Mafias are men like Al Capone and Charles “Lucky” Luciano. These men were coldblooded criminals. Al Capone was the man responsible for atrocious acts, such as the Valentine’s Day Massacre in New York.
Lucky Luciano may be responsible for the survival of La Casa Nostra in the U. S. and their ties to the Italian Sicilian Mafia, as he was deported in 1946. Italian Mobs are also highly-organized, putting their hand in anything that can create profits for them.
Italian Mobsters like John Gotti, Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, and the Gambino family are American household names. Their infamy may never die off, having been some of the most merciless human beings in existence. As can be noted, the existence of organized crime in one country is not only a threat of that country. These organizations grow and connect with each other. They also use younger, easily influenced youth to commit their petty crimes in exchange for cash. In turn creating more criminals like them.
Organized crime is dangerous and widely spread.Though there has been more effort by some countries to dismantle these gangs, some countries have been outnumbered by them. The MS-13 for example has more members in Honduras in El Salvador than police, leaving the country to succumb to the extortions and demands of these individuals. From what can be seen, poverty plays a major role in creation and sustenance of these gangs. There are many more transnational gangs found in the world not mentioned above.
It is unclear what remedy there is in the crusade against organized crime, but somewhere along the line, something must be done.
