Some insights on the link between terrorism, organised crime and ‘new wars’

2014

Purpose - The purpose of this chapter is to investigate on the relationship between terrorism, criminal organisations, and the so-called 'new wars'. Methodology/approach - Review of the existing literature on the 'new wars' and on the terrorism-crime nexus; estimate of the financial revenues gained by terrorist groups engaged in illicit activities. Findings -Terrorist and criminal groups can develop several forms of collaboration. Whether terrorists convert to criminal activities or not depends on a variety of factors, both internal and external. In some cases these links are occasional and opportunistic, associated with the possibility of exploiting the availability of specialised competen…