The spider’s web of organized crime: structural configuration of a real criminal organization and its relevance for the management of its security and efficiency needs

Abstract

Recent theoretical conceptions about organized crime refer to fragmented, decentralized and unstable organizations. This network-based structure increases their adaptability, posing a challenge for law enforcement. Security (controlling participants and concealing criminal activity) and efficiency (finding new resources) are directly related to the structural configuration of these networks and their properties. The aim of this article is to apply Social Network Analysis (SNA) by means of a triangulation process involving semi-structured interviews with seven members of a real drug trafficking organization, with the investigating officer and through sentencing testimony, to identify whether this organization has adapted to a more flexible configuration and how this fact might affect the management of its efficiency and security needs. The results of the SNA in terms of degree and betweenness of its participants and density and centralization of the network reflect an organization made up of interdependent subgroups, which coexist and are interrelated in a core-periphery logic as a result of the links established by different members who acted as intermediaries. This made it possible to maximize the exchange of resources (efficiency needs) but resulted in the compromising of security, a weak point on which law enforcement can focus.