Transnational organized crime

Crime refers to an act that is punishable by law, but when the act of crime is committed in collusion with state machinery it is referred to as organized crime. And when the scale of operation of organized crime spreads across boundaries of different nation states, it is referred to as transnational organized crime.

State agents collude with criminals either for monetary gains or to safeguard their political interests. The nexus between state agents and criminals gradually evolves into a symbiotic relationship benefitting both parties and thus becomes difficult to expose. The criminals emboldened by their connections with state agents commit crimes with impunity such as sex trafficking, gun running, money laundering, war crimes, political crimes, drug trafficking, financial (white collar) crimes etc. The law enforcement agencies find it difficult to put the criminals to task because of two reasons. Firstly, the criminals have patronage of influential politicians, businessmen or foreign entities which hamper the investigation process and delay it indefinitely. Secondly, the transnational nature of these crimes requires coordination between law enforcement agencies of different countries which in absence of cordial bilateral relations motivates the criminals to use the country as safe haven.

The politico-criminal syndicates involved in transnational organized crimes have plentiful monetary resources to bribe and gather sensitive information. Their knowledge of domestic and foreign laws is commendable which coupled with their criminal intent makes it difficult to unfold their modus operandi. The State law enforcement agencies often lack the resources in terms of manpower, time, knowledge, equipment and funding to pursue such criminal activities that spread across multiple geographies and requires expertise in diverse fields such as cyber technology, taxation, transfer pricing, narcotics etc.

Golden Triangle in South East Asia and Golden Crescent in India’s north-west are harbingers of drug cultivation and drug cartels that are used by terror factions in Pakistan and separatist groups like ULFA etc. to fund terror activities and separatist movements against India. The money generated by sale of drugs like opium, hash etc is laundered using the principle of placement, layering and integration and converted to white money. ‘Hawala route’ are illegal ways of converting black money into white wherein offshore shell companies (whose financial accounts are not available for auditing) located in tax havens are shown as beneficiaries.

Round tipping is another way of laundering black money wherein the money is invested in country’s stock markets via the ‘participatory note’ route. Participatory Notes are financial instruments used by foreign investors to invest in Indian stock markets through a broker thus keeping their identity secret. In India stock markets, a huge quantum of black money is invested using the concept of Round Tipping.

Sex trafficking is a social stigma and rampant in north-east India as well as Indo-Nepal border. The station at Raxual which is the last railway station in India at the Indo-Nepal border is used by traffickers to traffick gullible girls and poor women into sex trade. Women are also trafficked under the pretext of marriage alliances which has prompted the necessity to register marriage before undertaking foreign travel.

Transnational organized crime also includes the use of state and non-state actors to wage proxy as is being done by Pakistan in Kashmir and Balochistan. The use of such actors to further national interests has become a tool of foreign policy and thus, such states that provide sanctuary to terrorist elements should be dealt with strictly by the comity of World nations at global platforms such as UN.

As interconnectedness between World nations rises in terms of digital connectivity, the transnational aspect of organized crime would become more severe in nature and would require a dedicated team of ethical hackers to prevent cyber crimes. Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) is the nodal agency to respond to any cyber threat in India. Lately, Cyber Security Policy 2013 was notified by Indian government which urges all public and private IT and ITES firms to appoint a cyber security expert so as to safeguard their digital infrastructure. The Aadhar platform which contains biometric information of India citizens if hacked would prove to be catastrophic for India economy as personal information could be used to commit financial frauds. Therefore, it is in this context that India needs to partner with World nations to protect not only it’s physical frontiers but digital frontiers as well and stay abreast with latest technologies to neutralize any threat.

It is the diverse nature and complexity of organized crimes that has prompted the creation of specialized divisions in CBI. CBI also acts as nodal agency of Interpol in India. If organized crime syndicates are to be put to trial then Indian law enforcement agencies would need to shore up their infrastructure in terms of centralized database and learn to adapt to latest technological developments such as proficiency in forensic audits etc.
 

By: Abhinav