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Crime without Borders As gangs grow increasingly globalized, organized crime is becoming a problem hindering internat

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问题                                Crime without Borders
    As gangs grow  increasingly  globalized,  organized  crime  is  becoming a problem  hindering international economic development.
Gang Arrested
    The Colombian police arrest 27 suspects who were allegedly involved in printing forged notesin Medellin last April.
    In late 2005, Dutch police raided (搜捕) Hells Angels clubhouses around the country.  In a coordinated sweep that followed a yearlong investigation, police carried out predawn searches in six towns and cities in the Netherlands, arresting 45 members of the motorcycle club, laying scores of charges and seizing an assortment of weapons.
    Such large-scale raids were rare in Dutch history, and they showed that even in such a developed country without major social conflicts and with good social order, the influence of criminal organizations and the attempt to demolish them are taken very seriously.
    In today’s world, the economy is globalized, international communities are coexistent and worldwide interrelations grow ever closer.  Meanwhile, gangs in different countries seek more profit and living space. To avoid crackdowns by law enforcement on the home front, some continuously develop their structures and go global. They are stepping out of an individual country, thus becoming cancers that influence international progress and development.
    For example, when the Hells Angels club was established in 1948, its members were mainly World War II veterans who failed to get used to a peaceful life and continued to look for adventures. Decades later, this club became an influential and populous organization in North American, Australia and most countries in West Europe.
    It was, ’and in many places still is, involved in criminal activities such as drug trafficking, money laundering, terrorist moves and murders. In Canada, Hells Angels and members of rival motorcycle gangs carried out killings when fighting for drug trafficking businesses, resulting in 160 dead or missing. Due to this, Canadian police dispatched 2,000 police officers and launched raids in Ontario, Quebec and other provinces.
Major Activities
    The Israeli police search the site of an explosion launched by underworld(黑社会) gangs in Tel Aviv (特拉维夫) on December 11, 2005.
    Since the 1980s, drug trafficking (不法交易) has been the major business of international gangs. At present, the amount of drugs trafficked annually worldwide is valued at more than $ 550 billion, with 85 percent handled by underworld organizations.
    Due to the potential for significant profit, gangs strengthen cooperation and form a global chain of drug plantation, processing, transportation and sales. For example, according to Colombian officials, the biggest drug trafficking organization in the country has a very detailed work division, covering developed overseas drug trafficking network, as well as cocaine planting farms and processing plants. Its strength is centered in the country’s capital, Bogota (波哥大), and spreads to provinces in west Colombia and the North Caribbean coast.
    As well, the organization owns secret airbases in the country’s north province and tropical bushes in the south. Traffickers deliver drugs through these bases by small planes to Mexico, Central America and the Florida coast in the United States. After being airdropped at a scheduled spot, the drugs will be transported to other places by mosquito crafts(快艇), which helps drug dealers avoid police supervision.
    In this way, about 10 tons of cocaine can be trafficked every month. The Italian Mafia(黑手党) also barefacedly(公然地) transports drugs with boats, and the value of heroin delivered is estimated to reach more than $ 40 billion every year, or about 10 percent of Italy’s entire GDP. Underworld organizations in the United States and Russia have also built bulky drug sales networks.
Another Sweep
    Members of a tactical unit of the Honduran police arrest a man in Tegucigalpa in a surprise raid last November.
    Another common activity for these gangs is money laundering(洗黑钱). That refers to the changing of large amounts of capital, procured through illegal channels, into legal money that can be used freely. Traditionally, the United States, Switzerland and Caribbean island nations are considered money- laundering heavens to the underworld, with about $ 5 trillion changed to clean money there every year.
    However, in a U. S. report on drug trafficking and money laundering, Turkey, Greece, Russia and Cyprus are regarded as the four new centers of money laundering. For instance, more than $100 billion is laundered every year in Russia.
    Accompanying drug trafficking and money laundering are often kidnappings and killings, used as techniques to blackmail and intimidate. In recent years, many people, including government officials, businesspeople and journalists, have died under the guns of criminal organization members in Russia.
New Tendencies
    Recently, the development of international gangs has followed certain trends. Internationalization and cooperation are common for gangs in different countries an[1 regions.  The Italian Mafia is strengthening its structure overseas and enlarging investment, increasing its influence in Europe, America and some East Asian countries. Big gangs in Japan, such as the Yakuza, are moving into Southeast Asia, Hawaii and the West Coast of the United States.
    Foreign gangs enter new territories by forming close ties with local underworld forces. They cross lines of traditional crimes, get a hand in aspects of financing and in entertainment circles, and become corporations with great economic influence. Big underworld organizations have even held international
meetings to mark out individual territory and business area so as to avoid bloody territorial conflicts.
Executed Gang Leader
    This California Department of Corrections’ handout photo shows death row(死囚区) inmate (监狱同室者) Stanley "Tookie" Williams, a former gang leader.
    The second underworld trend is the use of the Internet and advanced intelligent technologies. In Japan, a secret financial system has become fully developed with the help of high technologies. The underworld organizations allocate capital within a short period of time among continents via the Internet, telephone, fax and secret broadcasting stations.
    At last, through their violent, criminal activities, gangs muscle their way into the political and economic fields. Some of them can even influence a country’s policies to some extent as they attempt to seize the country’s economic lifeline. Sometimes people with underworld background donate to political parties, bribe government officials, or even participate in elections, so as to shield criminal activities. Japan was shocked when media outlets published a picture of Yoshiro Mori, former Japanese Prime Minister, having dinner with chieftains of the Japanese underworld.
    U.S. gangs can collect about $150 billion in illegal income, equaling the country’s total revenue from the iron and steel industry and aluminum and copper processing industry. Russian officials once said the underworld has penetrated into major industrial aspects of the country, controlling about 500 major enterprises.
    Turkish gangs are involved in more than 100 departments and aspects of the government, and underworld businesses have covered a quarter of the country’s total GDP. Gang crimes can be found in almost every city in the country. For example, there ,are 454 gangs in Istanbul. Their routine business is illegally charging parking fees. If refused, they beat up the car owners, or damage their vehicles. They are also involved in selling human organs, and changing the name of owners in registers and receiving transfer checks illegally.
    Gang crimes have drawn international attention. Communities around the world are strengthening joint strikes, and designing bilateral and multilateral pacts on controlling, preventing, and punishing gang crimes. The United Nations passed the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime in November 2000.  Meanwhile, other countries are carrying out intensified cooperation in attacking underworld organizations.
At present, the value of the drugs trafficked worldwide amounts to ______ every year.
选项
答案more than $ 550 billion
解析 见第二个小标题第二段：“At present，the amount of drugs trafficked annually worldwide is valued at more than $550 billion”。目前，每年全世界的毒品走私的价值达到了$550 billion。
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