Alternate Fridays • 1:15 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. • Room 21
Coordinators:    Hal Henry, Martin Hebeling

Recent events prompted United States Attorney General Mukasey to announce in April an initiative to combat international organized crime. We at OLLI are in the process of addressing the topic in this new class. The session topics are tentative as we recruit speakers from law enforcement both locally and nationally, and academics with relevant expertise. We will structure discussion sessions based on news reports and other available sources. If you wish to get better informed and contribute to a dialog on this growing menace, join us on Friday afternoons.

Introduction to International Organized Crime
September 19
Discussions will include the origins of local organized crime, data on the merging of separate national crime organizations, the reasons for merging activity and difficulties in law enforcement.

Participating Criminal Organizations
October 3
We will discuss Italian mafia, Russian mafia, Chinese triads, Colombian drug organizations, United States mafia, and Nigerian gangs. The potential for terrorist interaction, i.e. Al Qaeda use of Italian Mafia to provide safe route and safe house assistance in Europe
 
Categories of Criminal Activity Involved
October 17
In this presentation we will discuss drug trafficking, human trafficking, i.e. slavery and prostitution, money laundering, swindling and extortion.

Categories Continued
October 31
Counterfeiting, smuggling, assassination

Enforcement Activities
November 14
International cooperation, database sharing, electronic surveillance, jurisdictional issues, appropriate court system, vagaries of national traditional systems, and international court.
 
Future Prospects and Risks
December 5
Illegal activity generates vast cash quantities. Money-laundering surveillance, especially improved electronic tracking of money, offers excellent prospects for determining who is doing what. The prospects of vast heroin profits being diverted into terrorism funding by the Taliban in Afghanistan is troubling. In many ways the objectives of the international criminal cartels and the radical Islamic terrorists are related. If the terrorists are seeking destabilization and punishment of a decadent Western society, using illicit money profits to accomplish it makes a certain type of sense. The antidote for the combined malady would seem to be an enhanced surveillance and interdiction activity in some coherent, coordinated effort.