Mark Galeotti - How Crime Organises the World
Timestamps are as accurate as they can be but may be slightly off. We encourage you to listen to the full context.
Podcast Summary
In this fascinating exploration of organized crime's hidden influence on society, Mark Galeotti, a leading expert on global security and organized crime, reveals how criminal networks shape everyday life far more than most people realize. (02:38) The conversation challenges common assumptions about crime being something that happens "over there," demonstrating instead how our banks, construction materials, and financial systems are deeply intertwined with criminal economies. (04:24) Galeotti explores the evolution of organized crime from rural banditry to urban gangsters to modern cybercrime networks, showing how criminal organizations adapt and evolve alongside legitimate society.
Key themes discussed include:
- The inextricable connection between organized crime and organized society, with criminal networks often serving as parallel governance structures
Speakers
Mark Galeotti
Mark Galeotti is one of the world's leading experts on Putin's Russia and has been banned from the country since 2022. He is a global security expert and historian by training who has written extensively on Russian organized crime and geopolitics. His latest book, "Homo Criminalis," explores the history of organized crime and its relationship with legitimate power structures throughout history.
Hannah MacInnis
Hannah MacInnis is a presenter for the How To Academy podcast, London's home of big thinking. She conducts in-depth interviews with leading experts and thinkers on a wide range of topics for their biweekly show.
Key Takeaways
Organized Crime Is Embedded in Legitimate Society
Rather than being a separate underworld, organized crime is fundamentally integrated into our everyday lives and legitimate institutions. (03:08) Galeotti explains that our banks contain dirty money, our houses may be built with illegally harvested materials, and our furniture could come from illegally logged forests. This reality means we all participate in criminal economies whether we realize it or not. The key insight is recognizing that organized crime doesn't exist in isolation - it's a parasitic system that feeds off and supports legitimate commerce and governance structures.
States and Criminal Organizations Follow Similar Formation Patterns
The formation of states historically follows patterns remarkably similar to organized crime development. (13:36) When states collapse, criminal organizations often fill the governance vacuum, providing protection services and extracting tribute from populations. Galeotti cites examples from Afghanistan and Somalia where criminal groups evolved into semi-state entities. This reveals that state legitimacy often emerges from successful criminal organizations that become "house-trained" over time, developing formal legal structures and acquiring social acceptance through longevity and effectiveness.
Criminal Networks Adapt Faster Than Legitimate Institutions
Successful criminal organizations excel at rapid experimentation and adaptation, following a "move fast and break things" philosophy similar to Silicon Valley tech companies. (58:28) They launch multiple ventures simultaneously, expecting most to fail, but scaling up the successful ones dramatically. This approach works because they have disposable capital and face less oversight than legitimate businesses. The lesson for professionals is the value of systematic experimentation - testing multiple approaches simultaneously while being prepared to quickly pivot from failures to double down on successes.
Geographic Transition Shapes Criminal Evolution
The evolution of organized crime from rural banditry to urban gangsters to modern cybercrime reflects broader technological and social changes. (27:25) Historical criminal organizations relied on remote hideouts like forests, then adapted to urban slums as cities grew, and now operate in the borderless digital realm. Each transition required developing new organizational structures, recruitment methods, and operational tactics. This pattern demonstrates how successful criminal organizations continuously reinvent themselves to exploit new technological and social environments.
Financial Services Drive Modern Criminal Innovation
The most significant transformation in organized crime today is happening in financial services, extending far beyond traditional money laundering. (56:13) Large criminal networks now have so much capital that they function like investment firms, funding property ventures, tourism development, and legitimate business expansion. This creates a gravitational effect that warps legitimate financial services around criminal money, particularly in middle-tier jurisdictions that are connected to global markets but lack strong regulatory oversight.
Statistics & Facts
- Rocket Money users save an average of $378 per year when they cancel subscriptions through the app, and overall the service has saved its members $880 million in canceled subscriptions. (00:41)
- According to research mentioned by Galeotti, drug dealers in Chicago would actually earn more money and live safer lives by stacking shelves in supermarkets rather than dealing drugs. (23:56)
- No other specific statistics were provided in this episode about organized crime itself, though Galeotti mentioned various historical examples and case studies throughout the discussion.
