Last week, Salvatore La Piccolo, boss of the Mafia, was arrested in Italy where he was meeting with his son and two associates. Among the items found was a list stating what the police are describing as a “The Ten Commandments”of being a good mobster. Here is the list courtesy of the BBC. 1. No-one… Continue reading The Ten Commandments of the Sicilian Mafia
Category: Transnational Crime
News and statistics on transnational crime activities. Monitors organized crime, arms trafficking and other illegal markets.
Italian Mafia: A $120 Billion business
In 2007, the Italian Mafia was estimated to have a turnover of over $120 Billion. 7 percent of Italy’s economic output was filtered off by organized crime.
Illegal Adoptions in Guatemala
Voice of America News has an article highlighting the black market trade in adoptions that is currently taking place in Guatemala. Every year, thousands of people from the United States visit the Central American nation of Guatemala, not just for tourism, but to adopt babies. Last year, more than 4,000 Guatemalan children were adopted by… Continue reading Illegal Adoptions in Guatemala
Human Smuggling to Europe
More than 50,000 people from Africa reached the southern shores of Europe in 2006. Those that paid a human smuggler to guide them into Europe paid the smugglers between $2,000 to$5,000, depending on the origins of the person.
Percentage of Donors Receiving Compensation for Organs
Up to 10 percent of all kidney transfers operations are estimated to involve donors who received financial compensation for their organ. (Cost of Kidney Transplants on the black market.) Source: “FACTBOX: The who, what, where, and why of organ trafficking,” Reuters, August 6, 2007.
Human smuggler usage on the US-Mexico border
In the late 1990s, 90 percent of illegal immigrants in the US from Mexico were believed to have paid a human smuggler to guide them over the border.