Old and New Threats of Organised Crime

Résumé

Alongside terrorism, organised crime (OC)  constitutes one of the two focal points of many contemporary security strategies. The
common understanding of organised crime is that of a tightly knit hierarchical structure dominated by a small group of leaders,
held together by strict discipline with a its own set of rules and united by a common regional origin. Legendary examples of
this type of organised criminal groups are the Italian mafia such as the ‘Ndrangheta, the Camorra and the Cosa Nostra, but also
groups from Albania, the Chinese Triads or the Japanese Yakuza. Their main avenues of income, according to common belief, are the
illicit trade with weapons, the global drug markets and human trafficking. However, apart from the conventional perspective
on organised crime, there exist more aspects of the phenomenon that evade the initial glance. Ranging from decentralised
networks conducting cyberattacks to groups or networks engaging in product counterfeit, environmental crimes or illicit
medial products, organised crime is a multifaceted phenomenon.