Whatever the current terms and expressions, from organized crime and criminality to terrorism, insurgents to gangs, freedom fighters to victims of oppression, we can be sure of one thing. There will always be people attracted to making a point, money or trouble for their cause or lifestyle, illegally.
At fundamental levels of the human psyche, there have always lurked versions of some need to express or exercise power and control, for good or otherwise. If you can reap the rewards from illegal endeavours without coming to any lasting harm, why not, shout the opportunists.
Today, it is easier and cheaper to make a substantial amount of money selling counterfeit DVDs, whose buyers eagerly await the discounted but perfect copies, than to trade the equivalent weight in classified drugs, for a lower return, and a longer sentence if caught. Where is the "smart" money going?. Not only that, but with a compliant public, it is hard to paint a deterrent picture of victims in this scenario, where counterfeiting is becoming the number one crime of the 21st century.
A raid on a Chinese diaspora counterfeit watch gang in Manhattan found orders and pro-formas for potentially about $50 million worth of business for the year, from just one family.
It takes about $120,000 to make enough cigarettes to fill a 40-foot container, including shipping and bribes - that's about 425,000 packs of 20. If these cigarettes are sold at say , $6 in a market where the average retail price is around $8, the net profit can be around $2,430, 000, with little risk.
Of course, this is only one area. The crime and criminality portfolio continues to grow, along with new versions of threats, in both the physical world, and cyberspace.
We can help you get productive answers to these kinds of questions -
• Is your company
doing all it knows it can to protect itself from crime at
home and away?.
• How do you best apply these and new learning?.
• Are you doing all you can to protect your employees, suppliers, brands, and reputation from crime?. How do you measure this?.
• How can you work more closely with governments and professional bodies to influence policies that affect corporate security?.
• How can trust between commercial enterprises and national security forces be fostered and turned into consistently secure advantages in the battle against sophisticated targeted crime?.
• How can operational
activities between public sector agencies with limited geographical jurisdiction
and business security activities which are often regional or global, be
synergised?.
