Mafia state

In politics, a mafia state is a state system where the government is tied with organized crime, including when government officials, the police, and/or military take part in illicit enterprises.[1] The term mafia is a reference to any organized crime groups strongly connected with the authorities.

This article is about systemic corruption of a government by organised crime syndicates. For the 2011 book about Russia, see Mafia State (book).
This article refers to a systematic corruption of a government by major organized crime syndicates. For the greater connotation that literally means "rule by thieves", see Kleptocracy.
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According to the critics of the mafia state concept, the term "has now been so used and abused in popularized descriptions of organized criminal activity that it has lost much of its analytic value".[2]

According to US diplomats, defector Alexander Litvinenko coined the phrase "mafia state."[3]

Particular applications of the concept

Mafia in Italy and Yakuza in Japan
Giulio Andreotti, seven-time Prime Minister of Italy, was charged with having links to the Mafia

In a critical review of Moisés Naím's essay in Foreign Affairs, Peter Andreas pointed to the long existence of Italian mafia and Japanese Yakuza, writing that there were close relationships between those illicit organisations and respective governments.[2] According to Andreas, these examples speak against incidences of mafia states as a historically new threat.[2]

In Italy, there are three main mafia organisations that originated in the 19th century: the Cosa Nostra originating from the region of Sicily, the Camorra originating from the region of Campania, and the 'Ndrangheta originating from the region of Calabria.[4]

Former Prime Minister of Italy, Giulio Andreotti, had legal action against him, with a trial for mafia association on 27 March 1993 in the city of Palermo.[5][6] The prosecution accused the former prime minister of "[making] available to the mafia association named Cosa Nostra for the defense of its interests and attainment of its criminal goals, the influence and power coming from his position as the leader of a political faction".[6] Prosecutors said in return for electoral support of Salvo Lima and assassination of Andreotti's enemies, he had agreed to protect the Mafia, which had expected him to fix the Maxi Trial. Andreotti's defense was predicated on character attacks against the prosecution's key witnesses who were themselves involved with the mafia.[6] Andreotti was eventually acquitted on 23 October 1999.[5] However, together with the greater series of corruption cases of Mani pulite, Andreotti's trials marked the purging and renewal of Italy's political system.[5]

The Camorra Casalesi clan rose in the 1980s, gaining control of large areas of the local economy "partly by manipulating politicians and intimidating judges".[7] The clan was heavily involved in the Naples waste management crisis that dumped toxic waste around Campania in the 1990s and 2000s; the boss of the clan, Gaetano Vassallo, admitted to systematically working for 20 years to bribe local politicians and officials to gain their acquiescence to dumping toxic waste.[8][9]

Countries described as Mafia states

Republics and territories of the former Yugoslavia
Montenegro's president Milo Đukanović is often described as having strong links to Montenegrin mafia.[10]

Kosovo, a partially recognised independent state formerly part of Serbia, was called a "mafia state" by Italian MEP Pino Arlacchi in 2011,[11] and also by Moisés Naím in his 2012 essay "Mafia States" in the Foreign Affairs. Naím pointed out that Prime Minister of Kosovo Hashim Thaçi is allegedly connected to the heroin trade. Many other crime allegations have been made, and investigated by several countries, against Thaçi.

Naím also labeled Montenegro as a "mafia state" in the same essay,[12] describing it as a hub for cigarette smuggling.[2]

Transnistria

Transnistria, an unrecognised break-away state from Moldova, has long been described by journalists, researchers, politicians and diplomats as a quasistate whose economy is dependent on contraband[13] and gunrunning.[14][15][16]

For instance, in 2002, Moldova's president, Vladimir Voronin, called Transnistria a "residence of international mafia", "smuggling stronghold" and "outpost of Islamic combatants". The allegations were followed by attempts of customs blockade. Reacting to the allegations, Russian state-run RTR aired an investigative program revealing that Transnistrian firms were conducting industrial-level manufacturing of small arms purposely for subsequent illegal trafficking via the Ukrainian port of Odessa. According to the program, the trade was controlled by and benefited from Transnistria's founder and then-ruler Igor Smirnov.[17]

However, more recent investigations and monitoring missions did not prove continuity in arms trafficking concerns. According to regular reports of the European Border Assistance Mission to Moldova and Ukraine (EUBAM), there have been no signs of significant weapons smuggling from Transnistria. During the press-conference on 30 November 2006 head of EUBAM Ferenc Banfi officially stated that organised smuggling of weapons in Transnistria did not exist.[18] In 2013, Ukrainian Foreign Minister and acting chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Leonid Kozhara gave an interview to El País newspaper, commenting on situation in Transnistria and results of work of the EUBAM mission. According to Kozhara, there have been no cases of arms traffic found.[19]

Some experts from Russia and Transnistria state that allegations of Transnistria being a "mafia state", "black hole of Europe", "heaven for arms trafficking", etc. are a carefully planned defamation campaign paid by the Moldovan government and aimed at producing negative image of Transnistria.[20] Officials from the European Union and the OSCE, say they have no evidence that the Tiraspol regime has ever trafficked arms or nuclear material. Much of the alarm is attributed to efforts by the Moldovan government to increase pressure on Transdniester.[21]

Russia

The term has been used by defector Alexander Litvinenko and some Western media to describe the political system in Russia under Vladimir Putin's rule.[22][23][24] This characterization came to prominence following the United States diplomatic cables leak, which revealed that US diplomats viewed Russia as "a corrupt, autocratic kleptocracy centred on the leadership of Vladimir Putin, in which officials, oligarchs and organised crime are bound together to create a 'virtual mafia state.'"[25] In his book titled Mafia State, journalist and author Luke Harding argues that Putin has "created a state peopled by ex-KGB and FSB officers, like himself, [who are] bent on making money above all."[26] In the estimation of American diplomats, "the government [of Russia] effectively [is] the mafia."[27][28][29]

According to the New Statesman, "the term had entered the lexicon of expert discussion" several years before the cables leak, "and not as a frivolous metaphor. Those most familiar with the country had come to see it as a kleptocracy with Vladimir Putin in the role of capo di tutti capi, dividing the spoils and preventing turf wars between rival clans of an essentially criminal elite."[30] In 2008, Stephen Blank noted that Russia under Putin is "a state that European officials privately call a Mafia state" that "naturally gravitates toward Mafia-like behavior."[31]

Nikolay Petrov, an analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Centre, said "it's pretty hard to damage the Russian image in the world because it's already not very good".[32]

Mexico

The scholar of Law and Economics Edgardo Buscaglia describes the political system of Mexico as a "Mafiacracy". Buscaglia characterises the condition between the state, the economy and organized crime in Mexico as a mutual interweaving, [33] Mexico has also been labeled as a Narco-state (a country where the political power and the economy it's closely related and its relies highly on protecting the drug trafficking mafias).[34]

Malta

Jonathan Benton, the former head of a United Kingdom anti-corruption agency, described Malta as a “mafia state” where money laundering transactions of hundreds of millions of euros are made every year without any problem. He made this statement while speaking on BBC radio following the murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.[35]

“Malta has become a dystopian laboratory revealing how democracies can degenerate.” - Carlo Bonini, Italian mafia expert, author of 'Murder on the Malta Express'

"Malta has morphed into a mafia state, and become exactly how Sicily would have turned out if Cosa Nostra were put in charge" co-author of a new book on the murder of the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia has claimed - The Times of London

'The inquiry is now closing in on what the murdered journalist’s family and many others see as the real culprit: not Italian Mafiosi but what many here call Malta’s own “mafia state.”' - New York Times

Times of Malta said 'It’s a timely question because it’s evident to the Italian forces of law that billions have been funnelled through Malta by the Calabrian Mafia alone. This very week, more investigations raised questions about Malta-based companies fronting for the Mafias of Sicily and Puglia as well as Calabria. And there’s no need to belabour the links between kleptocrats in Azerbaijan and Malta, the stench arising out of 17 Black, or the widespread cry – verbally and in graffiti – that Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination was a sign of a Mafia state. So it’s important to get things right. ‘Mafia state’ is not just a label. It’s a diagnosis of cause and effect, of where we are and where we’re going."[36]

Other

Moisés Naím, the author of Illicit: How Smugglers, Traffickers, and Copycats Are Hijacking the Global Economy, wrote in an article for the American magazine Foreign Policy: "In mafia states such as Bulgaria, Guinea-Bissau, Montenegro, Myanmar (also called Burma), Ukraine, and Venezuela, the national interest and the interests of organised crime are now inextricably intertwined."[37]

During the 1990s, Aruba, an overseas territory of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, was alleged to be a mafia state under then Prime Minister Henny Eman. The Sicilian Cuntrera-Caruana Mafia clan was said to "own" over 60% of the island through investments in hotels, casinos, and donations towards Eman's election-campaign. These claims later turned out to be exaggerated, however.[38][39]

In 2010, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi had labelled Switzerland as a mafia state, stating that "Switzerland is behaving like a criminal organisation and it is involved in money laundering, assassinations and terrorism."[40]

gollark: Yes, it's possible to predict that a group will do well without supporting them?
gollark: There is more to winning wars than determination.
gollark: I don't really like an explanation which is just "they have no good reason".
gollark: Does anyone have any idea *why* they're invading, though? It seems really stupid.
gollark: I don't think all the random Middle East wars actually had conquering them as an end goal, although I don't know that much about geography.

See also

References
  1. Mafia States: Organized Crime Takes Office by Moisés Naím, Foreign Affairs.
  2. Andreas, Peter (2012-07-01). "Measuring the Mafia-State Menace: Are Government-Backed Gangs a Grave New Threat?". Foreign Affairs (July/August 2012). Retrieved 2013-05-25.
  3. Luhn, Alec; Harding, Luke (5 November 2015). "Spain issues arrest warrants for Russian officials close to Putin". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  4. Letizia, Paoli (May 2016). Oxford Handbook of Italian Politics. Oxford University Press. pp. 670–671. ISBN 9780199669745.
  5. Briquet, Jean-Louis (1999). "The Faltering Transition". Italian Politics. 15: 123–138. JSTOR 43486480.
  6. Allum, Percy (1997). "Statesman or Godfather? The Andreotti Trials". Italian Politics. 12: 219–232. JSTOR 43039678.
  7. "The toxic reason a mafia boss became a police informant". BBC News. 30 October 2013.
  8. "Così ho avvelenato Napoli". l'Espresso. 2008-09-11. Retrieved 2008-10-24.
  9. "Inchiesta sui veleni a Napoli perquisiti l'Espresso e due reporter". la Repubblica. 2009-09-12. Retrieved 2008-09-26.
  10. "OCCRP announces 2015 Organized Crime and Corruption ‘Person of the Year’ Award". Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.
  11. "Kosovo is "mafia state", says Italian MEP". B92.net. Retrieved 2013-05-25.
  12. Andreas, Peter (2012-07-01). "Measuring the Mafia-State Menace". Foreign Affairs. Foreignaffairs.com (July/August 2012). Retrieved 2013-05-25.
  13. "An illegal business that's smoking". Business New Europe. 2012-04-18. Archived from the original on 2 January 2014. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
  14. "Ющенко: Украина недополучает из-за контрабанды из Приднестровья". Korrespondent. 23 March 2006. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
  15. "Hotbed of weapons deals". The Washington Times. January 18, 2004. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
  16. СВИРИДЕНКО, АЛЕКСАНДР; НЕПРЯХИНА, НАТАЛИЯ (2006-10-03). "Приднестровье самоизолировалось". Kommersant-Ukraine. Archived from the original on 2 January 2014. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
  17. Bulavchenko, Aliona (February 8, 2002). ДНЕСТРОВСКИЕ ПОРОГИ. Zerkalo Nedeli (in Russian). Retrieved 2 January 2014.
  18. Fragment of EUBAM press-conference regarding Mission activities in 2004-2006 Transnistrian Customs Committee Press-Service.
  19. Queremos zonas de libre comercio tanto al Este como hacia el Oeste El Pais. 4 June 2013.
  20. Some aspects of administrative legal regime of customs activities of Transnistria in context of work of international monitoring missions Customs and Science. 12 May 2011.
  21. Moldova: Western Diplomats Say Reports Of Smuggling From Transdniester Likely Exaggerated Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. October 11, 2005.
  22. Putin's Russia 'now a mafia state', BBC
  23. Wikileaks: Russia branded 'mafia state' in cables, BBC
  24. British MPs paint scary picture of Putin's Russia, EUObserver
  25. WikiLeaks cables condemn Russia as 'mafia state', The Guardian
  26. Expelled Moscow correspondent claims Russia is mafia state, abc.net.au
  27. Below Surface, U.S. Has Dim View of Putin and Russia, The New York Times
  28. Russia - Mafia State: It's important to tell the truth about Putin's Russia, CNN
  29. Stephen Holmes, Fragments of a Defunct State, London Review of Books
  30. Review: Mafia State, New Statesman
  31. Stephen Blank (2008): What Comes After the Russo–Georgian War? What's at Stake in the CIS, American Foreign Policy Interests, 30:6, 379–391
  32. Russia’s "mafia state" image no disaster, euronews
  33. Die Zeit-Online: Interview with Edgardo Buscaglia (German-speaking Article)
  34. "Ven en EU a México como 'narcoestado'".
  35. Ltd, Allied Newspapers. "Ex-British anti-corruption boss dubs Malta 'mafia state'". Times of Malta. Retrieved 2018-10-14.
  36. Ltd, Allied Newspapers. "Is Malta a Mafia state? - Ranier Fsadni". Times of Malta. Retrieved 2020-07-14.
  37. "Mafia States". Foreign Policy. 2012.
  38. The Rothschilds of the Mafia on Aruba, Transnational Organized Crime, Vol. 3, No. 2, Summer 1997
  39. (in Dutch) Arubaanse minister vertelt halve waarheid drugsmaffia, by Tom Blickman, Het Parool, October 15, 1997
  40. "Gaddafi labels Switzerland a 'mafia state'". The Sydney Morning Herald. May 4, 2010.

Further reading
  • Luke Harding (2012). Mafia State: How One Reporter Became an Enemy of the Brutal New Russia. Guardian Books. ISBN 978-0-85265-249-7.
  • Naím, M. (2012). "Mafia states: Organized crime takes office." Foreign Affairs, 91, 100.
  • Wang, P. & Blancke, S. (2014). "Mafia State: The Evolving Threat of North Korean Narcotics Trafficking." The RUSI Journal. 159 (5). 52–59.
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