The Changing Structure of Organized Crime Groups 2 Executive Summary

With significant improvements in modes of transport, communication and ever-expanding horizon of technology, organized crime has significantly evolved into a global phenomenon. It also appears that the factors contributing to globalization and the very fact of globalization of organized crime groups has resulted in a range of complex structures of these groups-necessitating the formation of market-driven transnational networks. Researchers have concluded that the criminal organizations of the 21st century are characterized by a large degree of fluidity and structural complexity. As opposed to the popular stereotypes, they utilize diverse forms and sizes of clusters, network structures and groups, often but not invariably transnational with occasional local home-bases, as suited for their diverse forms of illegal activities, and as dictated by emerging opportunities across the globe. Results of a pilot survey conducted by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (2002) of 40 selected organized criminal groups in 16 countries confirmed the existence of this structural fluidity in the five typologies that were identified and related to the observed groups: Standard hierarchy, Regional hierarchy, Clustered hierarchy, Core group and Criminal network. The major Colombian cartels provide a good example of complex network type structures. Their structure is compartmentalized, and mimics