Organiseret kriminalitet

A finalist for the PEN Center USA Award for NonfictionFor two months every winter, when Pacific storms make landfall, Oahu's paradisical North Shore turns into a fiery hell. Its population more than triples as mainlanders, Brazilians, Australians, and Europeans transform the normally sleepy shore into a lawless, violent, drug-addled, and adrenaline-soaked mecca where fearless men paddle into thirty-foot waves breaking over a razor-sharp reef. And when the sun goes down, the true danger comes out as drug money, fights, murder, and extortion rule the surfing underworld. The North Shore during winter is downright dangerous but also exhilarating, and Chas Smith paints a true picture of what it feels like to be in the middle of it all. Welcome to Paradise, Now Go to Hell is both a breathtaking and wildly funny tale of beauty, wickedness, and the unyielding allure of ocean waves in all their glory.

To what extent was Rosario "Russell" Bufalino involved in the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa in 1975? In the CIA's recruitment of gangsters to assassinate Fidel Castro? In organizing the historic meeting of crime chieftains in 1957? Even in the production of The Godfather movie? A uniquely American saga that spans six decades, The Quiet Don follows Russell Bufalino's remarkably quiet ascent from Sicilian immigrant to mob soldier to a man described by a United States Senate subcommittee in 1964 as "one of the most ruthless and powerful leaders of the Mafia in the United States."Secretive-even reclusive-Russell Bufalino quietly built his organized crime empire in the decades between Prohibition and the Carter presidency. His reach extended far beyond the coal country of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and quaint Amish farms near Lancaster. Bufalino had a hand in global, national, and local politics of the largest American cities, many of its major industries, and controlled the powerful Teamsters Union. His influence also reached the highest levels of Pennsylvania government and halls of Congress, and his legacy left a culture of corruption that continues to this day. INCLUDES PHOTOS

The incredible, untold story of the American agent who captured El Chapo, the world's most-wanted drug-lord.

In April of 1961, boats quietly approached the southern coast of Cuba. One of the Cuban exiles on board was José Miguel Battle, who had jumped at the opportunity to reclaim his country. But the Bay of Pigs invasion failed spectacularly, a betrayal that set in motion the creation of one of the most powerful and dangerous mobs in American history.By the mid-1980s, the criminal underworld in the United States had become an ethnic melting pot; one of the most ruthless organizations was the Cuban Mob, led by Battle, known as El Padrino, the Godfather. Their primary criminal racket was a game of numbers known on the street as ?bolita,? with coins wagered by average citizens adding up to billions of dollars for Battle. The organization's power stemmed from a criminal culture embedded in Florida's exile community and stretched to New York and New Jersey. It became known as ?the Corporation,? and for decades it ruled supreme, even outstripping the Italian Mafia, until it all came crashing down in a crescendo of violence.In The Corporation, T. J. English expertly interweaves the voices of insiders with a trove of investigative material to tell the story of this highly successful enterprise, setting it against the backdrop of revolution, exile, and ethnicity. Drawing on the detailed reporting and an impressive volume of evidence that drive his bestselling works, English offers a riveting inside look at this powerful and sordid crime organization and its decades-long hold in the United States.

This book contributes to the literature on organized crime by providing a detailed account of the various nuances of what happens when criminal organizations misuse or penetrate legitimate businesses. It advances the existing scholarship on attacks, infiltration, and capture of legal businesses by organized crime and sheds light on the important role the private sector can play to fight back. It considers a range of industries from bars and restaurants to labour-intensive enterprises such as construction and waste management, to sectors susceptible to illicit activities including transportation, wholesale and retail trade, and businesses controlled by fragmented legislation such as gambling.¿Organized criminal groups capitalize on legitimate businesses beleaguered by economic downturns, government regulations, natural disasters, societal conflict, and the COVID-19 pandemic. To survive, some private companies have even become the willing partners of criminal organizations. Thus, the relationships between licit businesses and organized crime are highly varied and can range from victimization of businesses to willing collusion and even exploitation of organized crime by the private sector - albeit with arrangements that typically allow plausible deniability. In other words, these relationships are highly diverse and create a complex reality which is the focus of the articles presented here.¿This book will appeal to students, academics, and policy practitioners with an interest in organized crime. It will also provide important supplementary reading for undergraduate and graduate courses on topics such as transnational security issues, transnational organized crime, international criminal justice, criminal finance, non-state actors, international affairs, comparative politics, and economics and business courses.

Despite lacking any experiencewith motorcycle gangs, CharlesFalco infiltrated three of America'sdeadliest biker gangs: the Vagos,Mongols, and Outlaws. In separate investigationsthat spanned years andcoasts, Falco risked his life, sufferinga fractured neck and a severely tornshoulder, working deep undercover tobring violent sociopaths to justice

A raw, gritty memoir - part true-life cop thriller, part unputdownable history of a storied time and place - that will grip you by the throat until the explosive end"Codella describes [Alphabet City] so vividly, with such hardboiled language that you feel like you're in the squad car with him." --New York Post "[A] taut true-crime tale... genuinely exciting." --Kirkus"A blistering cop's-eye view of the Drug War during the heady years of the late-1980s.... You will feel as though you are pounding the pavement and dodging bullets. Alphaville is the real deal." - T.J. English, New York Times bestselling author of The Savage CityAlphabet City in 1988 burned with heroin, radicalism, and anti-police sentiment. Working as a plainclothes narcotics cop, Mike Codella earned the nickname "Rambo" and a bounty on his head. The son of a cop who grew up in a mob neighborhood in Brooklyn, Codella understood the unwritten laws of the shadowy businesses that ruled the streets. He knew that the further east you got from the relative safety of 5th Avenue, the deeper you entered the sea of human misery, greed, addiction, violence and all the things that come with an illegal retail drug trade run wild. With his partner, Gio, Codella made it his personal mission to put away Davie Blue Eyes-the head of Alphabet City's heroin supply chain. Despite the hell they endured-all the beatings and gunshots, the footchases and close calls-Codella and Gio always saw Alphabet City the same way: worth saving. With the blistering narrative spirit of The French Connection, the insights of a seasoned insider, and a relentless voice that reads like the city's own, Alphaville is at once the story of a dedicated New York cop, and of New York City itself.

Donald "Mickey" McDonald was charged in 1939 with the killing of a bookmaker, supposedly Toronto's first gangland slaying. Two murder trials, a sensational escape from Kingston Penitentiary, and a $50,000 bank robbery established Mickey as a national crime figure, though the circumstances of his death still remain mysterious.

The new definitive history of gangster-era Chicago-a landmark work that is as riveting as a thriller. Now featuring a new preface, plus 115 photographs and a map of gangland Chicago.A Chicago Public Library Best Book of the Year"Gripping. ... Reads like a novel." --Chicago "Revolutionizes our understanding of Al Capone and Eliot Ness." --Matthew PearlIn 1929, thirty-year-old gangster Al Capone ruled both Chicago's underworld and its corrupt government. To a public who scorned Prohibition, "Scarface" became a local hero and national celebrity. But after the brutal St. Valentine's Day Massacre transformed Capone into "Public Enemy Number One," the federal government found an unlikely new hero in a twenty-seven-year-old Prohibition agent named Eliot Ness. Chosen to head the legendary law enforcement team known as "The Untouchables," Ness set his sights on crippling Capone's criminal empire.Today, no underworld figure is more iconic than Al Capone and no lawman as renowned as Eliot Ness. Yet in 2016 the Chicago Tribune wrote, "Al Capone still awaits the biographer who can fully untangle, and balance, the complexities of his life," while revisionist historians have continued to misrepresent Ness and his remarkable career.Enter Max Allan Collins and A. Brad Schwartz, a unique and vibrant writing team combining the narrative skill of a master novelist with the scholarly rigor of a trained historian. Collins is the New York Times bestselling author of the gangster classic Road to Perdition. Schwartz is a rising-star historian whose work anticipated the fake-news phenomenon.Scarface and the Untouchable draws upon decades of primary source research--including the personal papers of Ness and his associates, newly released federal files, and long-forgotten crime magazines containing interviews with the gangsters and G-men themselves. Collins and Schwartz have recaptured a bygone bullet-ridden era while uncovering the previously unrevealed truth behind Scarface's downfall. Together they have crafted the definitive work on Capone, Ness, and the battle for Chicago.

A criminal prosecutor and award-winning investigative reporter offer their insider account of the 2013 trial and conviction of James "Whitey" Bulger, Jr., the infamous mob boss behind the Winter Hill Gang. The Whitey Bulger trial: nineteen gruesome murders, a dead witness, government secrets, FBI corruption, an unbelievable love triangle. This nonfiction thriller features courtroom drama and behind-the-scenes exclusives from Whitey himself, the cops and U.S. attorneys who brought him down, jurors, the defense team, an imprisoned FBI agent, Whitey's victims, two former lovers, and high ranking members of both the Italian and Irish mobs. Whitey's machine guns and gangland-style violence will never be seen in Boston again.Margaret McLean weaves an intricate tale of deceit, violence and love based on trial testimony. Jon Leiberman offers his first-person experience traveling the world with the FBI Bulger Task Force when Whitey was on the lam for sixteen years. Both authors have developed intimate and personal relationships with Whitey and the key players in this saga. Whitey on Trial is the definitive firsthand account of the Whitey Bulger trial.Includes exclusive interviews and a never-before-seen letter from Whitey Bulger

Pat Jordan is a minor league pitcher turned award-winning sportswriter. Now 80, he looks back at his life, forever overshadowed by his father, an orphan, grifter, and gambler.

From the Alcatraz East Crime Museum and Jack the Ripper guided tours to the Phnom Penh killing fields, 'dark tourism' is now a multi-million-pound global industry. Even in the most pleasant tourist destinations, underlying harms are constantly perpetuated, affecting both consumers and those who work or live around such tourist hotspots. Highlighting 50 travel destinations across six continents, expert criminologists, psychologists and historians explore the past and contemporary issues which we often disregard during our everyday leisure. This captivating book is the 'go-to' guide for anyone interested in crime and deviance-related tourism. Accessible and digestible, it exposes a worrying trend in contemporary consumer culture, in which many of us partake.

Sergeant Smack chronicles the story of North Carolina's Leslie "Ike" Atkinson, an adventurer, gambler and one of U.S. history's most original gangsters. Under the cover of the Vietnam War and through the use of the U.S. military infrastructure, Atkinson masterminded an enterprising group of family members and former African American GIs that the DEA identified as one of history's ten top drug trafficking rings. Ike's organization moved heroin from Thailand to North Carolina and beyond. According to law enforcement sources, 1,000 pounds is a conservative estimate of the amount of heroin the ring transported annually from Bangkok, Thailand, through U.S. military bases, into the U.S. during its period of operation from 1968 to 1975. That amount translates to about $400 million worth of illegal drug sales during that period. Born in Goldsboro, North Carolina, Ike Atkinson is a charismatic former U.S. Army Master Sergeant, career drug smuggler, scam artist, card shark and doting family man whom law enforcement nick-named Sergeant Smack. He was never known to carry a gun, and today many retired law enforcement officials who had put him in jail refer to him as a "gentleman." Sergeant Smack's criminal activities sparked the creation of a special DEA unit code named CENTAC 9, which conducted an intensive three-year investigation across three continents. Sergeant Smack was elusive, but the discovery of his palm print on a kilo of heroin finally took him down. In 1987, Ike tried to revive his drug ring from Otisville Federal Penitentiary, but the Feds discovered the plot and set up a sting. The events that follow seem like the narrative for a Robert Ludlum novel. Atkinson was convicted again and nine years added to his sentence. Ike was released from prison in 2006 after serving a 31-year jail sentence. Atkinson's story is controversial because his ring has been accused of smuggling heroin to the U.S. in the coffins and/or cadavers of dead American GIs. As this book shows, the accusation is completely false. The recent movie, "American Gangster," which depicted the criminal career of Frank Lucas, distorted Atkinson's historical role in the international drug trade. Sergeant Smack exposes the lies about the Ike Atkinson-Frank Lucas relationship and documents how Ike, not Lucas, pioneered the Asian heroin connection. "Drug kingpin Ike Atkinson, is the real deal, and not the stuff of Hollywood legend. The author delivers an eminently readable book about a genuine Mr Big who knows that no fictional makeover is required for his compelling story - the truth is more than enough." -Steve Morris, Publisher, New Criminologist "Sergeant Smack is meticulously researched and its prodding for the truth by author Ron Chepesiuk makes it an excellent non-fiction crime story. Along with a compelling history of Ike Atkinson's life and criminal career in drug smuggling, the author has managed to put the truth to numerous falsehoods contained in the major movie, American Gangster, about the life of Frank Lucas." -Jack Toal, retired DEA agent who worked the investigation of Frank Lucas "Finally, the real story. I've waited 40 years for this book." -Marc Levin, Director of the documentary, "Mr. Untouchable" "Ron Chepesiuk has gone from publishing the Black gangster classics, Gangsters of Harlem and Black Gangsters of Chicago, to crafting Sergeant Smack, an astonishing masterpiece." -David "Pop" Whetstone, Owner, Black Star Music and Video "Sergeant Smack forcefully debunks the urban legend of Black family groups smuggling heroin from Southeast Asia in the bodies of dead GI soldiers while recounting the colorful saga of the authentic American gangster. Highly recommended." -Gary Taylor, journalist and author of the award-winning true crime

Originally published: New York: Gallery Books, 2010.

The 'ndrangheta - the Calabrian region of Italy's mafia - is one of wealthiest and most powerful criminal organizations today. It is considered Italy's most powerful mafia; it's not only the main object of concern for anti-mafia units in Italy, but also for joint investigative teams in Europe and beyond. Combining autobiography, travel ethnography, memoir, academic rigour and investigative journalism, this book provides a global outlook on the 'ndrangheta, taking the reader to small villages and locations in Italy and abroad to Australia, Canada, United States and Argentina.

As mob families go, the Philadelphia Mafia is the most dysfunctional familyof all?with brother turning against brother, sons turning on their fathers.In 1993, an embittered legacy of rivalry and hatred exploded into a brutal,bloody battle between old world mobster and the young, flamboyant JoeyMerlino. However, this would be warfare different from any other. This time, theFBI had it all down on tape. Among the mobsters caught on tape:John Stanfa, the violent, often irrational, paranoid old-school mob don battlinga new generation of savage young turks.Rosario Bellocchi , the young Sicilian-born hitman in love with his boss'sdaughter, who would do anything to get ahead?even kill his best friend.John Veasey, the two-hundred-pound mad dog hitman who once had to postponea hit?in order to visit his parole officer.Drawing on four years of investigative work, and more than two thousandtaped conversations, veteran true crime journalist George Anastasia takes readersinside the world of mobsters at war, and FBI agents so close on their heels thatt hey even watched onehit unfold live through asurveillance camera.

The never-before-told story of The Peppermint Lounge, the famed Manhattan nightspot and mobster hangout that launched an eraThe Peppermint Lounge was intended to be nothing more than a front for gambling and other rackets but the club became a sensation after Dick "Cami" Camillucci began to feature a new kind of music, rock and roll. The mobsters running the place found themselves juggling rebellious youths alongside celebrities like Greta Garbo and Shirley MacLaine. When The Beatles visited the club, Cami's uncle-in-law had to restrain a hitman who was after Ringo because his girlfriend was so infatuated with the drummer.Working with Dick Cami himself, Johnson and Selvin unveil this engrossing story of the go-go sixties and the club that inspired the classic hits "Twisting the Night Away" and "The Peppermint Twist."

In this investigation into the criminal underworld of the cities and villages of the Italian South, David Lane provides an unrivaled exposé of the operations of the Mafia today From Naples, home of Mafia-controlled mozzarella and toxic waste, through the no less rotten Calabria, to Sicily, cradle of Cosa Nostra, the hold of the Mafia on Southern Italy is as strong as ever. Following a multi-decade career as a journalist in Italy, David Lane uses his extensive contacts into the world of organized crime to demonstrate how globalization has transformed the Mafia into more than simply a global phenomenon. In painful detail, Into the Heart of the Mafia describes the unceasing mafia pressure endured by priests and politicians, businessmen, trade unionists, and ordinary citizens, and the risks undertaken by the policemen, judges, and politicians who fight to weaken the Mafia's influence. A travelogue with the most deadly of implications, Into the Heart of the Mafia stands as a guide like no other into the darkest side of Italy.