Role the Underground Economy Plays In Supporting Organized Crime Groups

Businesses and economic operations that are not reported to government systems are referred to as the underground economy. They're also known by other names, such as black market, shadow, unreported, and illegal. However, it can also apply to simple side hustles that individuals all over the world engage in. These organizations are exempt from laws and regulations, as well as taxation and enforcement penalties, if they do not report to the government. The underground economy plays an important role in the funding of organized crime organizations.

Drug and ammunition trafficking are illegal businesses that operate in the underground economy, as well as human trafficking. These are all ways to make "dirty" income from organized crime. What is the total amount of unlawful crime money? The IMF's estimate of 2.0 percent to 5.0 percent of worldwide GDP in 1998 is the most often stated number for illegal earnings from money financial fraud (Biabani, 2018). Drug traffickers generate large sums of money in many various areas in big cities, which they infiltrate into cash-intensive companies like eateries, which are particularly well adapted for money-laundering objectives, by contributing the illegal earnings to the company's "legitimate" turnover.

Drug dealers and gangs engage in illegal drug dealings and other illegal activities.Drugs are the most profitable business in organized crime, accounting for 50.0 percent of total revenue, followed by counterfeiting (39.0 percent), human trafficking (5.0 percent), and oil (2.0 percent).All other sorts of crime generate significantly less money. In 2009, we had approximately 650 billion dollars, which equated to 1.1 percent of global GDP.The pharmaceutical industry is also the most cash-intensive. Counterfeit currency proceeds are 30.0 percent cash, human trafficking proceeds are 50.0 percent cash, and illicit oil dealing proceeds are only 10.0 percent cash (Schneider, 2017).

Cybercrime's costs and profits: the most recent trend in international organized crime. As per Schneider, (2017), white-collar crime has spawned cyberattacks in the last 10 to 15 years. The European Commission defined cybercrime in 2007 as "traditional types of crime, such as embezzlement or counterfeiting, conducted over internet communications, connections, and information management; the dissemination of illicit content over electronic media; and crimes peculiar to electronic networks" (Schneider, 2017).Online financial fraud (phishing), phony anti-virus software, false automated systems, and fraudulent process failures are all examples of cyberattacks today. In their first systematic work, Schneider (2017) seeks to assess the cost of cybercrime and/or the illicit earnings from specific types of cybercrime in a systematic way. Cybercrime is a relatively new phenomenon that is rapidly growing in importance.

The globalization of organized crime has produced a dark underbelly to the global economy. Globalization has spread shadow economies and tax evasion, as well as international and transnational crime and its proceeds. Thus, the government should be aware of these facts in a worldwide environment. Modern societies and governments bear enormous expenses as a result of crime and tax evasion, and significant efforts should be made to mitigate these costs. As a result, substantially more effective institutional coordination is required (Biabani, 2018). Not only do foreign prosecutors need to be able to conduct investigations in other nations, but they also need to be able to transmit data efficiently and quickly. Only by improving international cooperation will it be feasible to successfully combat international crime.