Reporter's Guide to Investigating Organized Crime

"A transnational clothing brand staffing its factories with slave labor. An 11th-century statue stolen from a temple, trafficked overseas, and sold to a museum for millions of dollars...A drug-related massacre and hundreds of people missing as a result. These are just a few of the organized crime stories covered in recent years by investigative journalists around the world."

This guide is designed for journalists worldwide who are keen to start investigating organised crime. The chapters cover topics such as criminal finance, narcotics, arms trade, environmental crime, forced disappearances, cybercrime, mafia states, human trafficking, and art and antiquities. They are written by leading crime reporters (and one professor) who offer their advice about how to tackle these complex and dangerous topics, covering the main drivers and players involved, basic sources to guide journalists, case studies from multiple regions, and tips and tools on how to investigate the issue.

As explained in the introduction to the guide, organised crime is thought to be a trillion-dollar business. "One UN study put its annual revenues at close to 7 percent of global merchandise exports. Like a shadow government, it collects its own taxes and enforces its own laws. It affects economic development, social progress, the status of women, the degradation of our environment. In too many countries, it has replaced civil administration with government-by-theft. For business, it tilts the playing field toward the corrupt and violent." In addition, these crime syndicates are multinational and enterprising, which makes them difficult to investigate. "They exist almost everywhere, and they have taken advantage of globalization, modern technology, and weak enforcement. Police - largely bound by national borders - are being left behind as today's crime bosses move money, people, and contraband around the globe with few hindrances. Too often it is left to investigative reporters to ask the tough questions, put the pieces together, and make sense of the crimes that are remaking our world."

The 9 chapters - each containing suggested sources, case studies and tips and tools - are as follows:

• "Money Laundering and Financial Crime", by Paul Radu (Romania) - This chapter looks at how money laundering works and offers tips and tools on how to untangle the investments and the scale of money laundering. Guidance includes a discussion of some of the main instruments used by criminals to steal, hide, and invest their money, including offshore-type companies, proxies, banks, and fake contracts and invoices.
• "Drug Trafficking", by Steven Dudley (United States - US) - Drug trafficking is one of the world's most lucrative illicit activities, worth something in the range of US$500 billion per year. It is also a major source of: health-related issues and associated public healthcare costs; violence and civil conflict; political and economic upheaval; and much more. This chapter looks at the following key questions: Who are the sources? How do you do research? Where do you go?
• "Cybercrime", by Kate Fazzini (US) - This chapter focuses on cybercrime and investigating on the dark web. Everything from trafficking in child pornography, to a bank insider changing a customer's automated teller machine (ATM) information and withdrawing illicit funds, to the theft of source code, falls into the category of "cyber" crimes.
• "Forced Disappearances and Political Kidnapping", by Marcela Turati (Mexico) - According to the United Nations (UN), hundreds of thousands of people have vanished during conflicts or periods of repression in at least 85 countries around the world. But because many countries do not report statistics on this crime and because there is no globally accepted definition of it, it is impossible to accurately estimate how many people are disappeared each year. This chapter discusses how forced disappearances benefit criminals, with recommendations for journalists focusing on ensuring the safety of people interviewed and ensuring that victims are not re-victimised.
• "Human Trafficking", by Martha Mendoza (US) - There are two basic categories of human trafficking: sexual exploitation, which makes up about half of human trafficking, and labour abuse. On any given day, there are an estimated 40 million victims of modern slavery, mostly women but also men and children, according to UN data. The perpetrators, so-called traffickers and slave masters, collectively gain some US$150 billion a year in illicit profits, according to the International Labour Organization.
• "Arms Trafficking", by Khadija Sharife (South Africa) - The arms industry has less mandatory and enforceable international legislation than the banana or soy industry, leading experts to previously claim that the sector has accounted for at least 40% of known global corruption. And unless a country is embargoed or sanctioned, arms trading between nations is a largely private affair, with little in the way of checks and balances.
• "Environmental Crime and Climate Change", by Toby McIntosh (US) - Networks of business interests, government officials, and criminal groups run illegal operations that harm the environment in multiple ways. They drive worldwide illegal trafficking in wildlife and seafood, timber, minerals, hazardous waste, and toxic chemicals. Such environmental crimes are sometimes connected with other criminal activity, such as drug trafficking and money laundering. Tips and tools in this chapter explore going undercover, and using social media, databases, trade records, and seizure and arrest records as a starting point for investigation.
• "Antiquities Trafficking", by Donna Yates (Netherlands) - The chapter looks at the difference between the theft of art and antiquities, while offering advice and case studies on how to investigate these crimes. The illicit trade in antiquities is a form of transnational crime that connects the theft at heritage sites to the elite world of the global art market, often via a web of organised crime. The difference between the two is that the theft of valuable art is a lot more in the public domain and, for this reason, there is less of a market for stolen art.
• "Mafia States and Kleptocracies", by Drew Sullivan (US) - The term "afia states" refers to a government that itself is a criminal enterprise. These people running the state have their fingers in everything, and they back up their control by violence - the attributes one associates with the mafia. Kleptocracies, on the other hand, are characterised by government by theft, with widespread corruption. According to the guide, the key to understanding the operation of mafia states and kleptocracies - and exposing them - is by following the money and the resources, such as the country's natural resources, as these can best be monetised by those in power.