Design a National Strategy to Fight Organized Crime

1
Design a National Strategy to Fight Organized
Crime
2
Why is it so hard to fight OC?

• 1. Lack of evidence (Bosses are never in contact
  with the crime i.e. drug, guns, gambling)
• 2. Corruption of Law Enforcement and the
  Judiciary and other areas of government
• 3. The criminal organization is drawn by the most
  prominent financial and political circles.
• Result In the usual case, traffickers are
  convicted.

3
General Elements for a Strategy

• Legal aspects
• Structure of Police, Prosecutor, Judiciary and
  Prison institutions
• Training of Experts
• Development of strategies to investigate and best
  apply the relevant laws.

4
Development of the Legal Aspects

• International Context
• The 1988 Vienna Convention
• The 2000 Palermo Convention
• International best practices(discuss)

5
Does an International Strategy Exist?

• The Palermo Convention
• Development of an International Consensus to
  reach this Agreement
• The 1994 Naples Conference
• Negotiations in Poland, Argentina and Vienna
• Signed in Palermo
• Ratification is ongoing, currently 52 signatories
  (out of 112 countries participating).
  http//www.unodc.org/unodc/treaties/CTOC/

6
Generations of the Laws against Organized Crime
European Level
International
National Level
R.I.C.O. Law
1970
Rognoni-La Torre Law
1982
Development of European Legislation
Convention of Vienna
Colombia France Mexico
1988
Convention of Palermo
2000
Peru
7
Minimal Elements to Take into Consideration

• To criminalize
• a) Either conspiracy or participation in
  organized criminal groups
• b) Organizing, directing, aiding and abetting,
  facilitating or counseling the commission of
  serious crime involving an organized criminal
  group.
• c) Money laundering
• d) Corruption
• e) Obstruction of justice

• Measures to
• a) institute a comprehensive domestic regulatory
  anti-money laundering system
• b) ensure the ability to cooperate and exchange
  information on money laundering
• c) adopt legislative, administrative measures to
  promote integrity and prevent, detect and punish
  corruption
• d) ensure effective action in anti-corruption
  including independence of the authorities in
  charge of anti-corruption activities

8
Minimal Elements to Take into Consideration

• Measures to (continued)
• e) create a system of liability of legal
  persons (including Corp.s)
• f) enable confiscation of proceedings and
  instruments of crimes.
• g) enable identification, tracing, freezing or
  seizure and eventual confiscation of proceeds of
  crime
• h) empower courts or other competent authorities
  to order that bank, financial or commercial
  records be made available or be seized
• i) accept extradition

• j) accept mutual legal assistance
• k) provide effective protection for witnesses
  and victims
• l) provide access to compensation and
  restitution for victims
• m) encourage persons who participate or have
  participated in organized crime to collaborate
  with the justice system
• n) develop training programs
• o) assist one another in planning and
  implementing research and training

9
Design of Institutional Structures to Fight
Organized Crime

• An institutional structure is needed for
• Police
• Police Intelligence
• Prosecutors
• Prosecutorial Intelligence
• Judges
• Appeal Courts
• Prisons

10
FranceLaw Enforcement Structure
Ministry of Interior
Anti-Mafia Coord. Investigation Unit (UCRAM)
Anti-Terrorism Unit (UCLAT)
General Directorate of the National Police
Central Directorate of Urban Police (DCSP)
National Office of INTERPOL
Regional Services of the Judicial
Police (S.R.P.J.)
Police of Paris (P.P.P.)
Central Directorate of the Judicial Police
Ministry of Treasury
Ministry of Defense
Customs
Unit against Clandestine Financial
Circuits (TRACFIN)
Gendarmery
11
FranceCoordination
Ministry of Interior (Main Coordinator)
U.C.R.A.M. (Field Coordinator)
Gendarmery
Customs
Judicial Police
MONEY LAUNDERING CLANDESTINE FINANCIAL CIRCUITS
DRUGS
FINANCIAL CRIMES CYBERCRIMES
VIOLENCE (D.O.)
O.C.R.B.
O.C.R.T.I.S.
O.C.R.G.D.F.
T.R.A.C.F.I.N.
Search Intervention Brigade (B.R.I.)
12
FranceProsecution
13
U.S.A.Law Enforcement Structure
Department of Justice
Attorney General
Criminal Division
U.S. ATTORNEYS
Drug Enforcement Administration (D.E.A.)
Federal Bureau of Investigations (F.B.I.)
National Central Bureau of Interpol
Office for International Affairs
Internal Security Section
Department of Treasury
Special Investigations Office
Public Integrity Section
Customs
F.I.N.C.E.N.
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms
Organized Crime Racketeering Section
Office of Enforcement Operations Office
Secret Service
14
U.S.A.Coordination

• Federal Level
• White House Office on National Drug Control
  Policy
• Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation
• Financial Crime Enforcement Network
• Organized Crime, Narcotics Trafficking
  Enforcement Program
• Directorate of Central Intelligence
  Counter-narcotics and Crime Center
• Law Enforcement Detachments
• Bureau for Narcotics and Law Enforcement

• State Level (New York)
• State Attorney General
• Regional Offices and Division of State Counsel
• Criminal Division
• Medicaid Fraud Control Unit
• Organized Crime Task Force
• Civil Recoveries
• NY State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigations
• NY State Division of Criminal Justice Service

15
MexicoInvestigation
16
MexicoLaw Enforcement Structure(Coordination)
Public Security Secretariat
Federal System for the Treatment of Juvenile Crime
Attorney General Office
Federal Prisons System
Federal Preventive Police
Coordination of the Public Security System
Secretariat
Specialized Unit against Organized Crime
Treasury Secretariat
Defense Secretariat
Prosecutor
Federal Judicial Police
Counter-narcotics Intelligence Center
Unit against Money Laundering
17
Institutional Models (centralized or not)
Prisons
Appellation
Judiciary
Prosec. Office
Intellig.
Police
d
c
d
d
c
d
U.S.A.
d
c
d
d
c
d
France
d
c
d
c
c
c
Mexico
d
c
c
c
c
c
Spain
d
c
d
d
c
d
Italy
d
d
d
d
c
d
Germany
d
d
c
c
c
S. Africa
18
Centralization or Not?

• Difficulty to understand Laws against Organized
  Crime
• New Institutions
• Expansive rules
• Intrusive nature
• Rationality of decision control

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More Problems to Consider

• Corruption of Public Officials
• More centralization helps to lower the risk of
  spreading corruption
• Oversight of the Offices in charge of fighting
  Organized Crime is easier
• Protection of Judges, Police Officers and
  Prosecutors is facilitated (including their
  families).

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Criminalization

• Organized Crime
• Conspiracy
• Membership
• Others
• Corruption
• Money Laundering (all forms)
• Obstruction of Justice
• Protocols Crimes
• Trafficking of people / Smuggling of migrants
• Trafficking / Smuggling Drugs
• Counterfeiting products
• Manufacturing and Illicit traffic of firearms /
  WMD

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Means of Fight

• Extension of duration for investigation
• House Arrest/(EM) for investigation purposes
• Collaborating witnesses
• Immunity
• Benefits (punishment reduction)
• Protection of witnesses
• No parole without collaboration
• Undercover operations and controlled deliveries
• Telephone and electronic surveillance
• Financial investigations
• Seizure and forfeiture of assets

22
How to Control its Use?

• Challenge
• Rationality of decision control
• (Less abuse of power)
• Without loosing effectiveness.
• Recommendation
• Critical decisions against people or assets must
  be concurred by independents equals pre-facto or
  immediately post-facto (without adrenaline).

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Control of Decision ModelsU.S.A. (Wire-tapping)
U.S. CongressOversight Controlled the number
annually
Judge Authorize for 90 days
Department of Justice Washington Control Office

• SAC
• .

• SAC
• .

Request
Field Office
FBI Agent request ICP
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French Model
Acusation Room Review the decision 15 day
(maximum)
Judge of Instruction Ask for pre-trial detention
Judge of Liberty
48 hrs more on Terrorism and Drug cases
48 hrs.
Public Prosecutor
Judicial Police
24 hrs PLUS 24 hr
25
Need to Construct Barriers

• Laws against Organized Crime are intrusive
• They are exceptional
• Could be expansive beyond the precise language of
  the law (not desired consequence)
• Applies to conditions unforeseen
• Barriers are fundamental

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What is a Barrier?

• Determinate boundaries
• Who, under what conditions and which institutions
  can use the Law against Organized Crime
• The internal mechanisms of decision control

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Penitentiary Policy related to Organized Crime

• Characteristics
• Existence of an appropriate criminal procedure
  framework to avoid jurisdiction problems or
  constitutional complaints
• The prisons must be located in places of low
  urban density
• Avoid penitentiary over population
• The prisons must have systems to control access
  in all physical areas
• The prisons must have double security perimeter
• Internal, in charge of penitentiary custody
  personnel,
• External, in charge of penitentiary security
  personnel with help of the law enforcement.
• Must employ specialized personnel with training
  to manage convict treatment and security issues

28
Profile of the Penitentiary Population

• Convicts with a high dangerous profile
• and high capacity on organized crime to keep on
  operation, no matter if s/he is in prison, from
  inside to outside or vice versa.
• Convicts who must be protected
• by reason of their testimony or the
  characteristics of the crimes committed

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Design of Strategies

• Goals
• Dismantle the organization
• Limit its effectiveness
• Seizure and forfeiture of its assets
• Understand the organizational nature
• Determine its International links
• Determine what means will be applied

30
International Cooperation

• Police-to-Police
• Interpol
• Judicial (International)
• Mutual Legal Assistant

31
Understand the Limit of each Means

• Undercover Controlled deliveries
• Electronic Surveillance
• Collaborating Witnesses
• Financial Investigations
• Use every technique of investigation available.

32
The Evidence in Law

• In Instantaneous Crimes
• The fact happens in a moment
• The evidence consist of proof that these facts
  happened
• Murder as an Example
• Witnesses, ballistic, finger prints, DNA
  testing, etc...

33
The Evidence in Organized Crime

• On drug trafficking or Mafia, the bosses rarely
  come in contact with the drugs and rarely kill
  personally (Compartmentalize)
• The Organized Crime group is continuous in its
  criminal activity
• The crimes-area are continued and continuous

34
In Organized Crime Cases, it is NOT Necessary to
Prove

• That the boss ordered the crime
• It is sufficient proof
• that s/he commands or belongs to an
  organization that traffick in drugs, orders
  murders or blackmailing, or engages in certain
  predicate offenses

35
Evidence Integrity(Just like a Gothic Cathedral)

• It must be harmonic
• Trying to build modularly a crime and linking it
  to other crimes
• Proving the existence of an organization
• Every piece supports other pieces
• Relating one to each other

36
Harmonic Evidence Integration

• A collaborating witness statement is not enough
• It is also necessary to confirm as far as
  possible all that s/he says
• Electronic surveillance is not enough
• It is hard for prosecutors and judges to
  interpret and juries can misinterpret
• Its also necessary to prove a defendants role
  and membership in the organization

37
Recruitment Training

• Strict systems of personnel recruitment
• It can include use of polygraph analysts,
  social and economic studies, personality
  profiling, review of criminal records and
  appropriate physical health of the candidates
• Specialized training of the personnel on all
  aspects
• Initial Training
• Continuous Training
• Specialized Training

38
The Twin Track
REPRESSION
Fight the Criminality
PREVENTION
39
The Twin Track

• Repression
• Law enforcement
• Sanction and punishment

• Prevention
• Reducing the risk to society
• Intervening in the causes (proactive approach)
• Kinds of prevention
• Primary, Secondary and Tertiary, Individual,
  General and Proactive prevention, among others