Probably the single most significant trend in society today is the advent of the computer age and the quest for power through the use of information. For generations organized crime has had the uncanny ability to identify social patterns and trends and find a niche for money making somewhere in that niche. In the 1990s clearly the wave of the future is in the information society. As many corporate leaders have learned, the strategic use of information can equate to a source of power. Organized crime organizations will most likely make use of information to enhance the power they already possess.
Chances are, the answer is yes.
Clearly, financial revenues from drug trafficking have, over the years, made Colombian cartels international players in global finance. Many business losses, sometimes larger than the budgets of entire countries, are often blithely written off by drug cartels. Banks will be handling increased amounts of customer information which will prove not only valuable to them but to criminal organizations as well. Highly skilled computer hackers will be employed by organized criminals in the twenty-first century to penetrate targeted institutions. In doing so, they will be able to change bank records, credit card accounts and reports, alter criminal, educational, and even military records.