Twenty-one persons were indicted after a three-year investigation of distribution of large quantities of cocaine and heroin. The drugs were concealed inside operable car batteries, and couriers smuggled the batteries across the Mexican border into Texas, redistributing the cocaine and heroin to automobile dealers and auto parts stores in the Washington, D.C. area. The defendants were also charged with using drug proceeds to purchase vehicles for export to Guatemala and smuggling bulk amounts of currency to Texas, Mexico, and Guatemala. In another case, kilograms of cocaine were concealed inside multiple foreign shipments of children’s Lego toy boxes. The drug proceeds were brought regularly to a check-cashing business where wire transfers were sent to associates offshore (U.S. Fed News, 2005; U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, 2008).

These scenarios appear to be classic examples of transnational organized crime where some of the victims and offenders are outside the United States, but what are the essential elements?

WHAT IS ORGANIZED CRIME?

“Organized crime is a continuing criminal enterprise that rationally works to profit from illicit activities that are often in great public demand. Its continuing existence is maintained through the use of force, threats, monopoly control, and /or the corruption of public officials” (Albanese, 2007). It is distinguished from other forms of criminal behavior in four primary ways: (1) It emanates from a continuing enterprise, (2) its crimes are rationally planned, (3) it requires force, threats, monopoly control, or corruption, to insulate itself from prosecution, and (4) it often caters to public demand for illicit goods and services.