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Criminal Markets
Through the framework of the criminal marketplace, CISC highlights a variety of criminal markets that operate across Canada. Organized crime groups may intentionally concentrate upon a single or limited number of criminal markets, or they may be constrained by their criminal capabilities within a certain market. Some organized crime groups are involved in several criminal markets simultaneously, though group involvement may vary from one sector to the next.
Criminal markets are dynamic and evolve over time as they react to market forces, such as supply and demand, competition from other organized crime groups, technological developments and disruption by law enforcement. There are inter-dependencies or linkages between various criminal markets in that illicit activities in one sector may facilitate crimes in another.
Current market conditions, such as the expansion of marihuana and ecstasy production and distribution, and the spread of crimes such as mortgage fraud, are favourable to the development of new groups and the expansion of existing groups. Existing and developing technologies also create favourable market conditions for the emergence or expansion of criminal groups.
The numerous criminal actors within criminal markets move in and out of roles, expand or contract their criminal activities in response to law enforcement or competitive pressures, and form short and long-term criminal alliances of mutual benefit.
Considering the increasingly sophisticated, pervasive and globalized nature of organized crime, it is critical that the Canadian law enforcement community optimizes its capacity to collect and share criminal intelligence information in a timely fashion. RCMP Deputy Commissioner Peter Martin, |
There is often overlap between the legitimate commercial marketplace and the criminal marketplace.
At this cross-over, there are individuals who operate in each environment, often simultaneously. The number of organized crime groups, their changing inter-relationships and specific market dynamics contribute to the complexity of the Canadian criminal marketplace.
Nationally, most criminal markets, such as illicit drugs or counterfeit goods, appear highly resistant to long-term disruption. Law enforcement operations are able to dismantle some criminal groups completely, causing the group to dissolve.
Money laundering has consequences for all Canadians. When criminals are able to profit from crimes such as drug trafficking and fraud, criminal enterprises can continue to operate. Horst Intscher, Director, FINTRAC |
Others are incapacitated on a more temporary basis, demonstrating a surprising ability to recover from law enforcement disruption in the long term. In some cases, crime groups are able to remain active while key players are incarcerated. Temporary voids in criminal markets resulting from successful law enforcement operations can serve as opportunities for other crime groups to exploit.
