NCJ Number
179449
Editor(s)
Kristen Lindberg
Date Published
1997
Length
130 pages
Annotation
This report describes new criminal groups from Asia, Europe, Africa, and South America now operating in Chicago and around the country.
Abstract
The discussion notes that nearly every organized crime group now operates to some extent on a worldwide scale. Organized crime groups are forging alliances with one another, are exploiting increasingly sophisticated new markets that jeopardize international and corporate security, and are investing their ill-gotten resources in legitimate businesses. Traditional organized crime includes the Chicago Outfit, mob-influenced labor unions, groups involved in gambling, and the corruption of public officials. Asian organized crime groups have emerged as one of the most violent criminal enterprises operating in big-city Chinatowns; they present a major challenge for law enforcement due to language and cultural barriers, as well as the diversity of their operations. The Eastern European Organized Criminal Travelers are extremely organized international criminal groups with ties to organized crime and connections within the criminal justice system. Nigerian and West African criminal organizations sell heroin to Chicago's street gangs and defraud financial institutions, corporations, small business, and individuals through credit car and check fraud, advance fee fraud, and money laundering. Chicago's Polish organized crime groups are largely involved in the auto-theft exporting business, counterfeiting currency and checks, and drug sales. The influence of Russian organized crime has spread internationally; this form of organized crime could become the new mob in the United States if left unchecked. South American theft groups called ColGem operate nationwide and have contacts in almost all major metropolitan areas. The Yugoslavian/Albanian/Croatian/Serbian crime crews known as YACS are notorious for commercial burglaries as well as other crimes. Photographs and checklists