# 9. Mumbai actor sentenced due to ties to underground organizations.

This week a successful actor, Sanjay Dutt, was sentenced to five years in prison for having illegal firearms in his possession. These weapons were supplied by the same organization that was responsible for the 1993 Mumbai bombings. This is just another instance that shows the ties between the criminal underground and Indias film industry, otherwise known as Bollywood. The ganglords finance blocbusters in order to launder their illegally obtained capital. Many actors in the Bollywood scene have reported recieving multiple threats from some of the members of the underground organization. The main reason Bollywood has a connection with these criminal organizations is the government in Mumbai has very strict regulations that made the film industry unable to recieve bank credit, private equity, and other commercial and legal financing. Therefore the industry is forced to rub elbows with these high end "gangsters" in order to keep their dreams and careers alive. Many of the major criminals enjoy flaunting their connection to the film industry inviting the high profile actors to their parties, and the choice is not always left to them. Although the ties between Bollywood and the underground crime of Mumbai are tight, few actors and directors are spared form the fearsome threats and common home invasions and robberys that take place, many times face to face with criminals demanding money.

This just shows us that the world of organized crime has ties everywhere, if criminals are funding our media how can we trust what we see. An industry with no government funding that needs millions of dollars to stay in business can make one wrong decision one time and forever plunge the industry into an age of fear and turmoil, due to threats and extortion from the world of organized crime. It's unfortunate that people who would otherwise never involve themselves with the underground world of crime must do so in order to obtain and sustain their normal lifestyle. Also those who are blind to what they are recieving and dont otherwise know better have been punished to prove a point. However to the leaders of the crime syndicates it shows that the authoritites will catch the guppies but dont want to deal with the real big bass.

http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/28/newswallah-bollywood-and-organized-crime/

Arrests made for Organized Crime killings

An arrest made in Greece put Canada’s gang violence in perspective, Canadian Rabih Alkahilil was arrested for first degree murder, back in June of 2012 in the little Italy area of Toronto a respected gang leader Johnny Raposo was gunned down by two men dressed as road workers, he died on the scene while another man, Larry Amero was badly injured. Larry was a high ranking member of the hells angels. A year earlier a year earlier in British Columbia Jonathan Bacon was murdered by 4 men who blocked his car with their SUV and opened fire, killing him. Another man was seriously injured, a young woman was paralyzed from the neck down, and two other passengers were injured. Raposo was a drug dealer, high up in the small street gang known as the McCormicks, he went from a small time street dealer to a high up distributor. Bacon was also a drug dealer, heavily involved and supposedly co-leader of the Red Scorpions. Raposo was killed by Dean Wiwichar and Alkhalil. Wiwichar was a long time offender with over 30 firearm charges multiple assault charges both in and out of state and federal penitentiaries. Alkhalil had a pretty checkered past as well, he lost two brothers in involvement with gangs. He was arrested in Montreal in a operation police think moved 75kg of cocaine a week. Police found 400 firearms, explosives, and over 250 thousand dollars in cash. According to the police Wiwichar and Alkhalil were working under the orders of Nicola Nero ad Martino Caputo both arrested recently allegedly having ties to the Mafia and the Hells Angels.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/jerry-langton/jonathan-bacon-johnny-raposo-alkhalil-canada-gangs_b_2807188.html#slide=2152064

West African Drug Smuggling

Organized Crime syndicates  have been using West Africa as a narcotics trafficking route that includes cocaine and fraudulent prescription drugs as well as a migrant smuggling. A report from the UNODC states the profit from cocaine trafficking alone might still be greater than the national security budgets of several West African countries, causing great difficulties for local law enforcement. Also West African smugglers have become much more independent and enterprising in their ability to bring drugs into the region. At least 50 tons of cocaine from the Andean countries come through West Africa annually on their way to Europe where they can become almost 2 billion dollars. Unfortunately cocaine isn't the only major narcotic affecting the region, the rise of methamphetamine production in Nigeria with multiple lab busts and some 3000 couriers have moved 360 million dollars worth of drugs from West to East Africa. West African criminal groups are becoming increasingly influential in the international drug market. Quite possibly one of the scariest pieces of information is that West Africa is not only a transit route for the illegal narcotics but a destination for the substances to be sold to the people of the region.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=44213&Cr=West+Africa&Cr1=#.UTADXqKsiSo

Blog 3: Organized Crime, Fraudulent medeicne

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime began a conference today on the illicit trafficking of fraudulent medicine. Fake medicine has proven to be extremely dangerous and at some instances, fatal. Unfortunately, its an extremely lucrative business, and because of that, organized crime will continue to manufacture these fake drugs in order to satisfy their insatiable desire to keep making money. Countless high end officials have come together in order to come up with a counter acting proposal that will limit the availability of these illegal manufacturers and make it more difficult for them to endanger public health.
The Executive director of the UNODC, Yury Fedotov stated that fraudulent medicines pose a 3 pronged concern when it comes to health threats, development changes, and the role of organized crimes on a transcontinental scale. Mr Fedotov highlighted the critical role the UN would have to play when it comes to investigating, building cases, and eventually shutting down the institutions that are either directly involved with or manufacturing these falsified medicines.

It seems like the UN has a major issue here to deal with, in order to slow down and even stop the manufacture and distribution of these fraudulent drugs. It will take countless organizations collaborating together to seek out and punish the wrong doers. The distribution of drugs in this case medical drugs, is an extremely lucrative business, even more so when they manufacture them illegally and don't measure up to safety regulations its an extremely dangerous situation. The UN has a major task ahead of them, seeking out and infiltrating these manufacturers in order to shut down their massive operation that is directly affecting public safety on a global scale.

Organized Crime - Sicilian Mobsters Going Green

What’s the cleanest way to make money? Green energy, a report published on the 23^rd of January commenting on some new information that was coming about on a Sicilian crime syndicates’ involvement in wind and solar energy. Sicily is one of the sunniest places in Europe and an obvious choice for solar collection. The crimes committed weren't harmful to the Eco system but it was an Eco corruption. The largest solar panel producer in the world, China's Suntech, now has to restate over 2 years in fake capital used to finance new plants in Italy.  About a third of Sicily’s 30 wind farms and numerous solar power plants have been seized by Italian Authorities. More than 2 billion dollars in assets were frozen and a dozen crime bosses, local councilors, and mafia-linked entrepreneurs have been arrested. Italy isn't the only country with organized crime tapping the green spout. The British tax office arrested seven people in London in 60 million dollars (30 million pounds) worth of tax fraud.

It looks like the insatiable greed of organized crime has outdone itself; they’ve found a way to launder wind and radiation. It seems like a pretty clever pull, nobody gets killed from wind and solar energy, nobody gets addicted to it, and it’s a simple crime to get away with because it’s all invisible revenue. The mafia seems to be feeling the squeeze of our carbon foot print, but they’re more interested in the boat loads of cash they can make falsifying the production of renewable energy. I like to think of it as them becoming more conscious of the effect we have on our planet. Crime will always find a way, for a little while at least. Someone will always be desperate for cash, and people will always be born into families with ties to the kind of crime that doesn’t lurk in alleys but instead enjoys a life of luxury because of the corruption of the economy and politics, both small scale and large.

Crime

I Choose to follow international crime as my current event. Crimes are constantly occurring globally, it surrounds us on a daily basis. To me it seems to be a natural human impulse, someone is always trying to make a lot of money quick. Also human emotions are overwhelming and they cause people who can't control themselves to hurt others. Due to the imperfection of humanity I believe crime to occur as long as man has conscious thought.