Pubdate: Sat, 12 Apr 2008 Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC) Copyright: 2008 The Vancouver Sun Contact: http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477 Author: Ian Mulgrew, Sun Legal Affairs Columnist Note: Ian Mulgrew is the author of several non-fiction books, including Bud Inc.: Inside Canada's Marijuana Industry (Random House, 2005). BIG-TIME CRIME Smugglers And Scamsters Flourish In The Global Village In the good old days there apparently was only the Mafia to fear; today there is a motley multitude of multi-ethnic mobs operating around the globe. International travel and the failure of national police agencies to keep pace with the law-and-order implications of the global village have opened the door for criminals to expand their operations significantly and frustrate jurisdiction-bound police. Needless to say, no matter what their origin, the bad guys jumped at the opportunity. McMafia, the latest book by British Balkans expert Misha Glenny, illustrates this phenomenon with a collection of gangster stories culled from around the globe: the Russian Mob, Dubrovnik cigarette barons, Bombay bandits, B.C. Bud producers, Sao Paulo gangs, Nigerian Internet scamsters, Chinese snakeheads -- everyone makes a cameo appearance. Glenny believes we have witnessed the ascendancy of multi-national crime rings, and this is obvious if you look at the rise in people trafficking, identity theft, drug trafficking, smuggling and international fraud. Like McDonald's and modern corporations, organized crime has gone global in the digital age. A former journalist who specialized in Eastern and Southeastern Europe (covering especially the fall of Yugoslavia), Glenny is now a political consultant. His theory is that the underground economy mirrors the legal marketplace and that globalization has transformed subterranean commerce in the same way it has altered legitimate business. Drugs, weapons, women and migrant labour are all international commodities. As a result, those who traffic in them have become much more than local scourges. Glenny is not offering solutions; he's merely calling attention to the situation and the problems it poses. And his book is a fascinating, highly readable take on the world's crime syndicates. It provides sanguinary snapshots of each hemisphere's fraudsters, smugglers, thieves, pimps, extortionists, assassins and illicit chemists. Still, Glenny has a magazine-feature writer's view of the world. He grabs quick, fast-paced snapshots of various nations and regions and draws sweeping conclusions from them. These aren't always accurate, or insightful. For instance, according to Glenny, Western Canada is home to the largest per-capita concentration of crime conglomerates in the world. In his opinion, we have become one of the biggest law-enforcement headaches anywhere because "organized crime has broken out of the ghetto of marginal communities and conquered the middle class." His reason: A lot of people are growing pot in their basements. Hmmm. Although he uses my book, Bud Inc., as a source, I'd say he's pushing the envelope. Moreover, the portrait of the marijuana world he presents is a few years out of date and doesn't reflect recent changes that have occurred. Risks of crossing the border have increased dramatically since 9/11; also, American judges are being more lenient on growers, and domestic production has increased accordingly. The result has been a decline in the amount of pot being imported from Canada and, thus, a decline in B.C. production. His chapters about Indian organized crime and its links to the Middle East, as well as the sections on Israel, seem similarly distorted. But that's what happens when you paint with broad brushstrokes. For him, for example, Dubai is a "huge, undemocratic money-laundering centre." Maybe. I suspect, though, that that's more of Glenny's Fleet Street-inspired rhetoric -- which rings throughout. Former Soviet leader Boris Yeltsin's "kamikaze cabinet" apparently "flew their planes into the engine room of the Soviet social contract." Poor guys. I personally would have blocked that metaphor, and others. Glenny has a good point to make with his narrative, but in parts he seems overextended and outside his comfort zone. It shows mostly when he strays too far from home. Outside of the chapters that are focused on Europe or the former Communist regimes, some of the book reads like a once-over, rip-and-write effort by a talented wordsmith. Glenny provides a good, entertaining take on international crime lords, but McMafia is short on real substance, which makes it McInfo - -- non-fiction fast food for the chattering classes. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom