Organized crime groups provide a range of illegal services and goods. Organized crime often victimizes businesses through the use of extortion or theft and fraud activities like hijacking cargo trucks and ships, robbing goods, committing bankruptcy fraud (also known as "bust-out"), insurance fraud or stock fraud (insider trading). Organized crime groups also victimize individuals by
car theft (either for dismantling at "chop shops" or for export),
art theft,
Metal theft,
bank robbery,
burglary, jewelry and gems theft and heists,
shoplifting,
computer hacking,
credit card fraud,
economic espionage,
embezzlement,
identity theft, and
securities fraud ("
pump and dump" scam). Some organized crime groups defraud national, state, or local governments by
bid rigging public projects, counterfeiting money, smuggling or manufacturing untaxed alcohol (
rum-running) or cigarettes (
buttlegging), and providing immigrant workers to avoid taxes. Organized crime groups seek out
corrupt public officials in executive, law enforcement, and judicial roles so that their
criminal rackets and activities on the
black market can avoid, or at least receive early warnings about, investigation and prosecution. Activities of organized crime include: • loansharking of money at very high interest rates, •
blackmailing, •
assassination, •
backyard breeding, •
bombings, •
bookmaking and
illegal gambling, •
confidence tricks, •
copyright infringement, •
counterfeiting of intellectual property, •
metal theft, •
fencing, •
kidnapping, •
Corruption, •
Robbery, •
sex trafficking, •
smuggling, •
drug trafficking, •
arms trafficking, • oil smuggling, •
antiquities smuggling, •
organ trafficking, •
contract killing, •
identity document forgery, •
money laundering, •
bribery, •
seduction, •
electoral fraud, •
insurance fraud, •
point shaving, •
price fixing, •
cargo theft via fictions pickup, •
illegal taxi operation, • illegal dumping of toxic waste, • illegal trading of nuclear materials, • military equipment smuggling, nuclear weapons smuggling, •
passport fraud, • providing illegal immigration and cheap labor, • trading in endangered species, and •
trafficking in human beings. Organized crime groups also do a range of business and
labor racketeering activities, such as
skimming casinos, insider trading, setting up monopolies in industries such as garbage collecting, construction and cement pouring, bid rigging, getting "no-show" and "no-work" jobs,
political corruption and bullying.
Violence Assault Violent crime may be one of a criminal organization's tools used to achieve its goals, due to psycho-social factors (cultural conflict, aggression, rebellion against authority, access to illicit substances, counter-cultural dynamic), or it may simply be committed by individual criminals and the groups they form.
Assaults are used for
coercive measures, to "rough up" debtors, competition or recruits, in the commission of
robberies, in connection to other property offenses, and as an expression of counter-cultural authority. Violence is normalized within criminal organizations (in direct opposition to mainstream society) and the locations they control. While the intensity of violence is dependent on the types of crime the organization is involved in (as well as their organizational structure or cultural tradition), aggressive acts range on a spectrum from low-grade physical assaults to
major trauma assaults. Bodily harm and grievous bodily harm, within the context of organized crime, must be understood as indicators of intense social and cultural conflict, motivations contrary to the security of the public, and other psycho-social factors.
Murder Murder has evolved from the honor and vengeance killings of the
yakuza or
Sicilian mafia which placed large physical and symbolic importance on the act of murder, its purposes and consequences, to a much less discriminate form of expressing power, enforcing criminal authority, achieving retribution or eliminating competition. The role of the
hit man has been generally consistent throughout the history of organized crime, whether that be due to the efficiency or expediency of hiring a professional assassin or the need to distance oneself from the commission of murderous acts (making it harder to prove criminal culpability). This may include the assassination of notable figures (public, private or criminal), once again dependent on authority, retribution or competition. Revenge killings, armed robberies, violent disputes over controlled territories and offenses against members of the public must also be considered when looking at the dynamic between different criminal organizations and their (at times) conflicting needs. After killing their victims, the gangsters often try to destroy evidence by getting rid of the victims' remains in such a way as to prevent, hinder, or delay the discovery of the body, to prevent identification of the body, or to prevent autopsy. Criminals have been known to
dispose of dead bodies by hiding the bodies in trash or landfills, feeding them to animals (such as
pigs or
rats), industrial processes (e.g., chemical baths), injection into the legitimate body disposal system (such as morgues, funeral homes, cemeteries, crematoriums, funeral pyres or cadaver donations), covert killings at health care facilities, disguising as animal flesh (such as food waste or restaurant food), creating false evidence of the circumstances of death and letting investigators dispose of the body, obscuring the victim's identity, or abandoning the body in a remote area where it can degrade significantly. Animal activity, such as consumption by
scavengers, can contaminate the
crime scene or destroy evidence before being discovered. However, there are also many instances of gangsters putting the bodies of their victims on display as a form of
psychological warfare against their enemies.
Vigilantism Criminal syndicates often commit acts of vigilantism by enforcing laws, investigating certain criminal acts and punishing those who violate such rules. People who are often targeted by organized criminals tend to be individualistic criminals, people who committed crimes that are considered particularly heinous by society, people who committed wrongdoings against members or associates, rivals or terrorist groups. One reason why criminal groups might commit vigilantism in their neighborhoods is to prevent heavy levels of
community policing, that could be harmful to their illicit businesses; additionally the vigilante acts could help the gangs to ingratiate themselves in their
communities. In the US during the roaring twenties, the
anti-catholic and
anti-semitic Ku Klux Klan was known to be a staunch enforcer of prohibition, as a result
Italian,
Irish,
Polish and
Jewish gangsters would at times have violent confrontations against the KKK. On one occasion FBI informant and mobster
Gregory Scarpa kidnapped and tortured a local Klansman into revealing the bodies of Civil rights workers who had been killed by the KKK. During World War II, America had a growing number of Nazi supporters that formed the
German American Bund, which was known to be threatening to local Jewish people, as a result Jewish mobsters (such as
Meyer Lansky,
Bugsy Siegel and
Jack Ruby) were often hired by the American Jewish community to help defend against the Nazi bund, even going as far as attacking and killing Nazi sympathizers during bund meetings. Vigilante groups such as the
Black Panther Party,
White Panther Party, and
Young Lords have been accused of committing crimes in order to fund their political activities. While protection racketeering is often seen as nothing more than extortion, criminal syndicates that participate in
protection rackets have at times provided genuine protection against other criminals for their clients, the reason for this is because the criminal organization would want the business of their clients to do better so that the gang can demand even more protection money, additionally if the gang has enough knowledge of the local
fencers, they may even be able to track down and retrieve any objects that were stolen from the business owner, to further help their clients the gang may also force out, disrupt, vandalize, steal from or shutdown competing businesses for their clients. In Colombia the insurgent groups were trying to steal land, kidnap family members, and extort money from the drug barons. As a result the drug lords of the
Medellín Cartel formed a paramilitary vigilante group known as
Muerte a Secuestradores ("Death to Kidnappers") to defend the cartel against the
FARC and
M-19, even kidnapping and torturing the leader of M-19 before leaving him tied up in front of a police station. During the Medellín Cartel's war against the Colombian government, both the
Norte del Valle Cartel and
Cali Cartel formed and operated a vigilante group called
Los Pepes (which also comprised members of the Colombian government, police and former members of the Medellín Cartel) to bring about the downfall of Pablo Escobar; they did so by bombing the properties of the Medellín Cartel and kidnapping, torturing and killing Escobar's associates as well as working alongside the
Search Bloc, which would eventually lead to the dismantling of the Medellín Cartel and the death of Pablo Escobar. Because of the high levels of corruption, the
Oficina de Envigado would do things to help the police and vice versa, to the point where the police and the cartel would sometimes do operations together against other criminals; additionally the leaders of La Oficina would often act as judges to mediate disputes between the various different drug gangs throughout Colombia, which according to some helped prevented a lot of disputes from turning violent. On Somalia coastline many people rely on fishing for economic survival, because of this
Somali pirates are often known to attack foreign vessels who partake in
illegal fishing and
overfishing in their waters and vessels that illegally dump waste into their waters. As a result, marine biologists say that the local
fishery is recovering. In Mexico a vigilante group called
Grupos de autodefensa comunitaria was formed to counter the
illegal loggers, the
La Familia Michoacana Cartel and a drug cartel/
cult known as the
Knights Templar Cartel; as they grew, they were being joined by former cartel members and as they got bigger they began to sell drugs in order to buy weapons. The Knights Templar Cartel was eventually defeated and dissolved by the vigilantes' actions but they ended up forming their own cartel called
Los Viagras, which has links with the
Jalisco New Generation Cartel. The
Minuteman Project is a
far-right paramilitary organization that seeks to prevent
illegal immigration across the
US-Mexico border; however, doing so is detrimental to gangs like
Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), who make money through
people smuggling, and as a result MS-13 is known to commit acts of violence against members of the Minutemen, to prevent them from interfering with their illegal immigration activities. Throughout the world there are various anti-gang vigilante groups, who profess to be fighting against gang influence, but share characteristics and acts similarly to gangs, including
Sombra Negra,
Friends Stand United,
People Against Gangsterism and Drugs, and
OG Imba. Gangs that are involved in drug trafficking often commit violent acts to stop or force out independent dealers—drug dealers with no gang ties—to keep them from taking customers. In America, there is an
animal welfare organization called Rescue Ink, in which
outlaw biker gang members volunteer to rescue animals in need and combat against people who commit animal cruelty, such as breaking up
cockfighting rings, stopping the killing of stray
cats, breaking up
dog fighting rings, and rescuing
pets from abusive owners. In the American prison system,
prison gangs are often known to physically harm and even kill inmates who have committed such crimes as
child murder,
serial killing,
pedophilia,
hate crimes,
domestic violence, and
rape, and inmates who have committed crimes against the
elderly,
animals, the
disabled, the poor and the less fortunate. In many minority communities and poor neighborhoods, residents often distrust law enforcement, as a result the
gang syndicates often take over to "police" their neighborhoods by committing acts against people who had committed crimes such as
bullying, muggings,
home invasions, hate crimes,
stalking,
sexual assault, domestic violence and
child molestation, as well as mediating disputes between neighbors. The ways that the gangs would punish such individuals could range from forced apologies, being threatened, being forced to return stolen objects,
vandalizing property, arson, being forced to
move,
bombings, being
assaulted or
battered, kidnappings,
false imprisonment,
torture or being murdered. Some criminal syndicates have been known to hold their own "trials" for members of theirs who had been accused of wrongdoing; the punishments that the accused member would face if "found guilty" would vary depending on the offense.
Terrorism In addition to what is considered traditional organized crime involving direct crimes of fraud swindles, scams, racketeering and other acts motivated for the accumulation of monetary gain, there is also non-traditional organized crime which is engaged in for political or ideological gain or acceptance. Such crime groups are often labelled
terrorist groups or
narcoterrorists. There is no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law
definition of terrorism. Common definitions of terrorism refer only to those violent acts which are intended to create fear (terror), are perpetrated for a religious, political or ideological goal, deliberately target or disregard the safety of
non-combatants (e.g.,
neutral military personnel or
civilians), and are committed by non-government agencies. These illegally sourced assets are of little use to them unless they can disguise it and convert it into funds that are available for investment into legitimate enterprise. The methods they use for converting its 'dirty' money into 'clean' assets encourages corruption. Organized crime groups need to hide the money's illegal origin. This allows for the expansion of OC groups, as the 'laundry' or 'wash cycle' operates to cover the money trail and convert proceeds of crime into usable assets. Money laundering is bad for international and domestic trade, banking reputations and for effective governments and rule of law. This is due to the methods used to hide the proceeds of crime. These methods include, but are not limited to: buying easily transported values, transfer pricing, and using "underground banks," as well as infiltrating firms in the legal economy. Launderers will also co-mingle illegal money with revenue made from businesses in order to further mask their illicit funds. Accurate figures for the amounts of criminal proceeds laundered are almost impossible to calculate, rough estimates have been made, but only give a sense of the scale of the problem and not quite how great the problem truly is. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime conducted a study, they estimated that in 2009, money laundering equated to about 2.7% of global GDP; this is equal to about 1.6 trillion US dollars. The
Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), an intergovernmental body set up to combat money laundering, has stated that "A sustained effort between 1996 and 2000 by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to produce such estimates failed." However, anti-money laundering efforts that seize money laundered assets in 2001 amounted to $386 million. Means of money laundering: •
Money transmitters, black money markets purchasing goods, gambling, increasing the complexity of the money trail. • Underground banking (flying money), involves clandestine 'bankers' around the world. • It often involves otherwise legitimate banks and professionals. The policy aim in this area is to make the financial markets transparent, and minimize the circulation of criminal money and its cost upon legitimate markets.
Counterfeiting Counterfeiting money is another financial crime. The counterfeiting of money includes illegally producing money that is then used to pay for anything desired. In addition to being a financial crime, counterfeiting also involves manufacturing or distributing goods under assumed names. Counterfeiters benefit because consumers believe they are buying goods from companies that they trust, when in reality they are buying low quality counterfeit goods. In 2007, the OECD reported the scope of counterfeit products to include food, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, electrical components, tobacco and even household cleaning products in addition to the usual films, music, literature, games and other electrical appliances, software and fashion. A number of qualitative changes in the trade of counterfeit products: • a large increase in fake goods which are dangerous to health and safety; • most products repossessed by authorities are now household items rather than luxury goods; • a growing number of technological products; and, • production is now operated on an industrial scale.
Tax evasion The economic effects of organized crime have been approached from a number of both theoretical and empirical positions, however the nature of such activity allows for misrepresentation. The level of taxation taken by a nation-state, rates of unemployment, mean household incomes and level of satisfaction with government and other economic factors all contribute to the likelihood of criminals to participate in tax evasion. As with any other crime, technological advancements have made the commission of tax evasion easier, faster and more globalized. The ability for organized criminals to operate fraudulent financial accounts, utilize illicit
offshore bank accounts, access
tax havens or
tax shelters, and operating goods smuggling syndicates to evade importation taxes help ensure financial sustainability, security from law enforcement, general anonymity and the continuation of their operations. Al Capone became a notorious example of tax evasion. In 1931, he was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison and ordered to pay $215,000 in back taxes, along with accrued interest
Cybercrime Internet fraud Identity theft is a form of
fraud or cheating of another person's identity in which someone pretends to be someone else by assuming that person's identity, typically in order to access resources or obtain credit and other benefits in that person's name. Victims of identity theft (those whose identity has been assumed by the identity thief) can suffer adverse consequences if held accountable for the perpetrator's actions, as can organizations and individuals who are defrauded by the identity thief, and to that extent are also victims. Internet fraud refers to the actual use of
Internet services to present fraudulent solicitations to prospective victims, to conduct fraudulent transactions, or to transmit the proceeds of fraud to financial institutions or to others connected with the scheme. In the context of organized crime, both may serve as means through which other criminal activity may be successfully perpetrated or as the primary goal themselves.
Email fraud,
advance-fee fraud,
romance scams,
employment scams, and other
phishing scams are the most common and most widely used forms of identity theft, though with the advent of social networking fake websites, accounts and other fraudulent or deceitful activity has become commonplace.
Copyright infringement Copyright infringement is the unauthorized or prohibited use of works under
copyright, infringing the copyright holder's
exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make
derivative works. Whilst almost universally considered under
civil procedure, the impact and intent of organized criminal operations in this area of crime has been the subject of much debate. Article 61 of the
Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) requires that signatory countries establish
criminal procedures and penalties in cases of willful trademark counterfeiting or copyright piracy on a commercial scale. More recently copyright holders have demanded that states provide criminal sanctions for all types of copyright infringement. Organized criminal groups capitalize on consumer complicity, advancements in security and anonymity technology, emerging markets and new methods of product transmission, and the consistent nature of these provides a stable financial basis for other areas of organized crime.
Cyberwarfare Cyberwarfare refers to politically motivated
hacking to conduct
sabotage and
espionage. It is a form of
information warfare sometimes seen as analogous to
conventional warfare although this analogy is
controversial for both its accuracy and its political motivation. It has been defined as activities by a nation-state to penetrate another nation's computers or networks with the intention of causing civil damage or disruption. Moreover, it acts as the "fifth domain of warfare," and
William J. Lynn, U.S. Deputy
Secretary of Defense, states that "as a doctrinal matter,
the Pentagon has formally recognized cyberspace as a new domain in warfare . . . [which] has become just as critical to military operations as land, sea, air, and space." Cyber
espionage is the practice of obtaining confidential, sensitive, proprietary or classified information from individuals, competitors, groups, or governments using illegal exploitation methods on internet, networks, software or computers. There is also a clear military, political, or economic motivation. Unsecured information may be intercepted and modified, making
espionage possible internationally. The recently established
Cyber Command is currently debating whether such activities as commercial espionage or theft of intellectual property are criminal activities or actual "breaches of national security."
Computer viruses The term "computer virus" may be used as an overarching phrase to include all types of true viruses,
malware, including
computer worms,
Trojan horses, most
rootkits,
spyware, dishonest
adware and other malicious and unwanted software (though all are technically unique), and proves to be quite financially lucrative for criminal organizations, offering greater opportunities for
fraud and
extortion whilst increasing security, secrecy and anonymity. Worms may be utilized by organized crime groups to exploit security
vulnerabilities (duplicating itself automatically across other computers a given network), while a Trojan horse is a program that appears harmless but hides malicious functions (such as retrieval of stored confidential data, corruption of information, or interception of transmissions). Worms and Trojan horses, like viruses, may harm a computer system's data or performance. Applying the Internet model of organized crime, the proliferation of computer viruses and other malicious software promotes a sense of detachment between the perpetrator (whether that be the criminal organization or another individual) and the victim; this may help to explain vast increases in cyber-crime such as these for the purpose of ideological crime or terrorism. In mid July 2010, security experts discovered a malicious software program that had infiltrated factory computers and had spread to plants around the world. It is considered "the first attack on critical industrial infrastructure that sits at the foundation of modern economies," notes the
New York Times. White-collar crime and corruption Corporate crime Corporate crime refers to crimes committed either by a
corporation (i.e., a
business entity having a separate legal personality from the
natural persons that manage its activities), or by individuals that may be identified with a corporation or other business entity (see
vicarious liability and
corporate liability). Corporate crimes are motivated by either the individuals desire or the corporations desire to increase profits. The cost of corporate crimes to United States taxpayers is about $500 billion. One example of this is a tequila factory in Mexico collaborating with the organized crime group CJNG.
Labor racketeering Labor racketeering, as defined by the United States Department of Labor, is the infiltrating, exploiting, and controlling of an employee benefit plan, union, employer entity, or workforce that is carried out through illegal, violent, or fraudulent means for profit or personal benefit. Labor racketeering has developed since the 1930s, affecting national and international construction, mining, energy production and transportation sectors immensely. Activity has focused on the importation of cheap or
unfree labor, involvement with union and public officials (
political corruption), and
counterfeiting.
Political corruption Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of
government power for other purposes, such as
repression of political opponents and general
police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by private persons or corporations not directly involved with the government. An illegal act by an officeholder constitutes political corruption only if the act is directly related to their official duties. Forms of corruption vary, but include
bribery,
extortion,
cronyism,
nepotism,
patronage,
graft, and
embezzlement. While corruption may facilitate criminal enterprise such as
drug trafficking,
money laundering, and
human trafficking, it is not restricted to these activities. The activities that constitute illegal corruption differ depending on the country or jurisdiction. For instance, certain political funding practices that are legal in one place may be illegal in another. In some cases, government officials have broad or poorly defined powers, which make it difficult to distinguish between legal and illegal actions. Worldwide, bribery alone is estimated to involve over 1 trillion US dollars annually. A state of unrestrained political corruption is known as a
kleptocracy, literally meaning "rule by thieves".
Drug trafficking There are three major regions that center around
drug trafficking, known as the
Golden Triangle (Burma, Laos, Thailand),
Golden Crescent (Afghanistan) and Central and South America. There are suggestions that due to the continuing decline in opium production in South East Asia, traffickers may begin to look to Afghanistan as a source of heroin." With respect to organized crime and accelerating synthetic drug production in East and Southeast Asia, especially the
Golden Triangle,
Sam Gor, also known as The Company, is the most prominent international crime syndicate based in
Asia-Pacific. It is made up of members of five different triads.
Sam Gor is understood to be headed by Chinese-Canadian
Tse Chi Lop. The Cantonese Chinese syndicate is primarily involved in drug trafficking, earning at least $8 billion per year. Sam Gor is alleged to control 40% of the Asia-Pacific
methamphetamine market, while also trafficking
heroin and
ketamine. The organization is active in a variety of countries, including Myanmar, Thailand, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, China and Taiwan. Sam Gor previously produced meth in Southern China and is now believed to manufacture mainly in the
Golden Triangle, specifically
Shan State,
Myanmar, responsible for much of the massive surge of crystal meth in recent years. The group is understood to be headed by
Tse Chi Lop, a Chinese-Canadian gangster born in
Guangzhou, China. Tse is a former member of the Hong Kong-based crime group, the
Big Circle Gang. In 1988, Tse immigrated to Canada. In 1998, Tse was convicted of transporting heroin into the United States and served nine years behind bars. Tse has been compared in prominence to
Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán and
Pablo Escobar. The U.S. supply of heroin comes mainly from foreign sources which include Southeast Asia's
Golden Triangle, Southwest Asia, and Latin America. Heroin comes in two forms. The first is its chemical base form which presents itself as brown and the second is a salt form that is white. Drug traffickers produce drugs in
drug laboratories and drug farms. A drug lab can range in size from small
workshops to the size of small towns (such as
Tranquilandia). A drug farm is a place where drug crops are grown before being made into illegal narcotics. A drug farm can range in size from
smallholdings to large plantations. In addition to drug crops, it is also not uncommon for drug farms to also host
livestock, both to have a legal source of revenue to help disguise the dirty money and so that the livestock can provide a source of
organic fertilizer (such as
manure) for the drug crops. There are multiple instances where traffickers set up some of their drug farms,
safe houses and drug labs in remote
wilderness areas. Once produced, the fully processed narcotics are then transported to more populated areas to be sold. Oftentimes the traffickers stationed in these remote criminal settlements, sustain themselves with a combination of
survival skills and with food, supplies and workers being brought to them by associates. The reason that traffickers have been known to establish such remote compounds is so that the surrounding area can help to provide varying degrees of natural cover. Additionally the traffickers may also hope, that the surrounding terrain and local
wildlife might serve to deter or impede either investigative authorities or rival gangs if the location of the clandestine compound were revealed. While usually thought of as an urban issue, drug trafficking is also known to be a problem in both
suburban and
rural areas as well.
Human trafficking Human trafficking is a modern form of slavery where people are forced, tricked, or pressured into working or doing sexual acts. It can happen anywhere and affect anyone, no matter their age, race, or background.
Sex trafficking Human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation is a major cause of contemporary sexual slavery and is primarily for prostituting women and children into
sex industries. Sexual slavery encompasses most, if not all, forms of forced prostitution. The terms "
forced prostitution" or "enforced prostitution" appear in international and humanitarian conventions but have been insufficiently understood and inconsistently applied. "Forced prostitution" generally refers to conditions of control over a person who is coerced by another to engage in sexual activity. Official numbers of individuals in sexual slavery worldwide vary. In 2001
International Organization for Migration estimated 400,000, the
Federal Bureau of Investigation estimated 700,000 and
UNICEF estimated 1.75 million. The most common destinations for victims of human trafficking are Thailand, Japan, Israel, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Turkey and the United States, according to a report by
UNODC.
Illegal immigration and people smuggling People smuggling is defined as "the facilitation, transportation, attempted transportation or illegal entry of a person or persons across an international border, in violation of one or more countries laws, either clandestinely or through deception, such as the use of fraudulent documents". The term is understood as and often used interchangeably with migrant smuggling, which is defined by the
United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime as "...the procurement, in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or other material benefit, of the illegal entry of a person into a state party of which the person is not a national". This practice has increased over the past few decades and today now accounts for a significant portion of illegal immigration in countries around the world. People smuggling generally takes place with the consent of the person or persons being smuggled, and common reasons for individuals seeking to be smuggled include employment and economic opportunity, personal or familial betterment, and escape from persecution or conflict.
Contemporary slavery and forced labor The number of
slaves today remains as high as 12 million to 27 million. This is probably the smallest proportion of slaves to the rest of the world's population in history. Most are
debt slaves, largely in
South Asia, who are under
debt bondage incurred by
lenders, sometimes even for generations. It is the fastest growing criminal industry and is predicted to eventually outgrow
drug trafficking. ==Historical origins==