ORGANIZED CRIME

Organized Crime

Organized Crime

Introduction

Organized crime has been round for the past two hundred years. The soonest kind of coordinated crime designated days back as far as the 1860s, after the municipal War when kinds of illicit wagering became widely popular(Lyman & Potter, 2000). One of the most infamous organizations of organized crime is The Medellín Cartel. It had an very organized and complex network for not only supply of smuggling of drugs in the different countries in which the cartel was active. Some of these countries include Colombia, Peru, Boliva, Central America and United States of America. The founding members were Ochoa Vázquez brothers Jorge Luis, Juan David, and Fabio together with Pablo Escobar. The list of criminal activities of this organization is very long and become major player in the drug trafficking industry. With the help of United States, the Colombian government worked to toppled the organized by hunting and imprisoning its members.

Discussion

Cocaine remained the number 1 drug challenge faced by law enforcement agencies. The Colombian cartels and their cells were tightly established in almost every city of the USA. The Medellin Cartel had a devastating impact on U.S. communities.

Background

The cartel was organized in the early 1970s with black marketing of cigarettes into Colombia from Panama. Pablo found this business too risky when he lost shipment and the equipment. Subsequently, the cartel entered into cocaine business in 1972. In due course, the cartel replaced trucks with airplanes to develop better means of distribution system. .

The cartel laid down an extensive network of supply throughout the United States. Each city has several cells of the cartel serving the high demand of drugs. Creativity was employed to establish such a complex network which even left the law enforcement authorities befuddled. At the peak of their business, the organization was earning more than $1 billion per month. It was literally bribing all the stakeholders who are aiding the business. Plane pilots, Panamanian general, airport officials, air-traffic controllers, customs officials, shipyard bosses, government officials, etc. the revenue generated from the business in the states are being transferred back by converting approx one third into commodities form, and rest of the cash was hidden in suitcases, Piper Cubs, duffle bags, exported cars on outbound freighters, etc(Odlum, 2010).

The cartel has also been involved in number of terrorism activities. it murdered Luis Carlos Galán, a leading presidential candidate, and announced "total and absolute war against the Columbian government in 1989. They also hatched Car bomb to assassinate the newspaper El Espectador in Bogotá. Director of the newspaper, Guillermo Cano Isaza, had been murdered on Escobar's orders in1986 (Noblet, 1989).The same year, the organization changed itself into a portable business unit. As a means of terrorization, the cartels performed several hundred assassinations all over the country. The head of the organization, Escobar, and his associates made it clear that whoever stood against them would risk being killed along with his/her families. From 1989 after transforming into a mobile business, until Pablo's death in ...