A report says that criminal groups now focus on environmental waste, illegally harvesting resources, as well as hunting rare animals
Organized criminals in Canada and elsewhere are going green but instead of turning into environmentalists or turning green for envy they are turning to environmental crime as an increasingly lucrative way to raise money.
A report released recently by Criminal Intelligence Service Canada says that crime networks have developed underground markets for electronic waste and scarce natural resources.
The annual survey of organized crime, compiled from local police reports across the entire country of Canada, indicates criminals are using such markets to complement traditional revenue sources, such as trafficking in narcotics.
"Criminal networks can profit by collecting e-waste in developed countries such as Canada and selling it to 'recyclers' in developing nations," the service reports. And this is, possibly, the reason we are finding e-waste from countries such as Britain and the USA on rubbish tips in Ghana, where the leaching PCBs and other toxic materials contaminate the water and the environment per se.
"This practice is a violation of both Canadian and international law."
The report does not put a dollar figure on illegal trafficking and disposal of computers, televisions and cellphones but warns such activity will peak, starting next year, as digital broadcast norms take effect in Canada and the United States, making millions of ordinary television sets obsolete.
As digital is also going to be coming in in the UK in the not too distant future I am sure that we can see the same happening in Britain.
"One of the reasons organized crime has been as successful as it is, is that they're very adaptable and it's not like they've given up any of their traditional markets," said RCMP Commissioner William Elliott, who chairs the intelligence service.
Asked to outline the scope of illegal e-waste, Elliott said: "If it wasn't lucrative, organized crime groups wouldn't be involved in it."
A United Nations environment program estimates 20 million to 50 million tonnes of e-waste is generated worldwide every year. On top of financing criminal networks, authorities are concerned about how black-market recyclers handle defunct electronics.
"We're realizing that in terms of sales of laptops and electronic devices to organized crime there is often damage to the environment and it's a national concern," said Robert Chartrand, a Montreal police investigator who heads Quebec's bureau of the service.
Often extremely toxic, much of Canada's e-waste, and that of other developed nations, ends up in Asia and Africa to be mined for parts.
But the environmental threat represented by organized crime also extends to our natural resources. CISC notes that criminal networks have taken up illegal poaching and resource exploitation.
Michael Smith, September 2008
<>
Organized crime now shifting to 'green' targets
