ABSTRACT
Organized criminal groups do not commit crimes randomly. They plan them and set up an agenda of the kinds of crimes that they endorse, avoiding others. Today, the agenda includes extortion, racketeering, gambling, narcotics trafficking, and money laundering, among many others. As discussed in previous chapters, an intrinsic part of operations is the use of corruption tactics – bribing, threatening, or blackmailing government officials and police agencies – so as to guarantee various degrees of freedom. This chapter will deal with the main items on the core criminal business agendas. Drug trafficking is particularly critical to the sustenance of profits today, a fact that became obvious in the 1960s, when a pipeline was set up to move heroin from the poppy fields of the Middle East via Turkey and then to the streets of America. The scheme was known as the “French Connection.” Since then, drug traffickers have utilized similar schemes, increasing their sources of income considerably.
