Welcome to Underworlds with Mark Shaw.

Organized Crime is everywhere, hidden in plain sight. The stories from this world have been mythologised by Hollywood. But the reality can be even stranger and more exciting than fiction.

From the golden age of the American mafia (La Cosa Nostra), to the modern-day cocaine empires, and from the shadowy links between organized crime and terrorism, to the twilight of the Yakuza.

In this series Mark Shaw, the Director of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime delves into non-fiction books about organized crime and the illicit economy with the authors themselves. He asks questions about their background and investigations, but also the challenges associated in writing about this murky world.

Ivory poaching is a problem wherever we find elephants, and that is no different in India. The ivory taken from the Asian elephants has long been prized in both traditional Chinese medicine and also ivory artefacts.

According to the Global Organized Crime Index, India has low score for Criminal Actors (4.8), but scores highly for Criminal Markets (6.7), where it sits 16th globally. Ivory poaching falls into the category of Fauna Crimes, here India scores 7.0 out of 10, that places the country 25th globally.

But India also has the highest levels of Resilience (5.42) to organized crime in South Asia.

In this episode we discuss an AI-driven technology developed specifically to help combat ivory poaching in India.

Presenter: Thin Lei Win

Speakers: Sharada Balasubramanian, independent environmental journalist.

Links:

(Article) ‘Hawk-eyed: India is fighting its ivory poachers with a powerful tech weapon’

ECOSOLVE project

Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) - Kerala Forest & Wildlife Department takes official charge of ‘HAWK’ to Combat Wildlife Crime

OC Index Country profile(s):

India Country Profile

Additional Links:

The Global Organized Crime Index

The Observatory of Illicit Economies in Central and South Asia (CSA-Obs)

Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

Ukraine (9/10) and Russia (8.5/10), alongside the former Soviet states of Moldova and Belarus, have some of the highest scores for arms trafficking in the Global Organized Crime Index.

This is due to the significant levels of weapons and ammunition left over at the end of the Soviet period.

In addition to the high levels of arms trafficking across this part of Europe, Central and Eastern Europe has the highest scores for state-embedded actors on the European continent (Russia, 8.5/10; Ukraine, 8/10).

Since Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Western nations have sent weapons to Ukraine to aid in its struggle, but there are concerns that these weapons could leak out into the illicit markets of Europe and end up in the hands of organized crime.

Currently there is no evidence of this, the Ukrainian government has put in strict measures to prevent this from happening.

In this episode, we look at the war in Ukraine, and arms trafficking.

Presenter: Thin Lei Win

Speakers: Daniel Brombacher, Director of the Europe Observatory, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

Links:

(Paper) Smoke on the Horizon: Trends in arms trafficking from the conflict in Ukraine

OC Index Country profiles:

Ukraine Country Profile

Russia Country Profile

Moldova Country Profile

Belarus Country Profile

The Global Organized Crime Index

GITOC - The Observatory of Illicit Markets and the Conflict in Ukraine (UKR-Obs)

GITOC - The Observatory of Organized Crime in Europe (EUR-Obs)

Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime