Transnational organized crime in the United States

The purpose of this dissertation was to explore the problem of transnational crime in the United States and determine if it is a significant threat to the United States and worthy of its own research agenda. It was found through a nationwide survey of 400 law enforcement agencies throughout the United States (228 respondents) that transnational criminal organizations were operational in the majority of these jurisdictions in 1999, (54 percent), and that these groups are involved in wide variety of illegal activities including drug trafficking, money laundering, high tech crime, financial fraud, and many other unlawful operations associated with organized crime. The police departments that reported active transnational criminal organizations in their jurisdictions in 1999 also expected these criminal groups to become a growing menace over the next five years. It was also found that virtually every state and city, regardless of size or geographic location, is vulnerable to the pernicious criminal activities of transnational organized crime groups. Furthermore, it was discovered that most of these criminal networks became active in the United States during the 1990s and are likely to expand their operations in this country in future years.; The international dimensions of transnational organized crime were also explored through an examination of how these groups have evolved over the last several decades. These groups have greatly expanded their operations around the world in recent decades due in large part to changes in the geopolitical environment, advances in the transportation and telecommunications industries, the globalization of the world's economies, and the permeability of national boundaries. The threats transnational criminal organizations pose to Americans and their communities, national sovereignty, business and financial institutions, and global security and stability are also examined in this study. Lastly, this study examined some of the major transnational criminal organizations operational in the United States, how they evolved, their criminal operations, and when they first started to penetrate this country.