Spreading its tentacles into professional groups such as lawyers, bankers, and politicians, organized crime has thrived in ways it never could in the underworld alone. If there is a way for illegal money to be made, Robinson appears to have touched on it, from headline-grabbing drug or money laundering cases to seemingly smaller crimes such as piracy of videos and CDs. There, local gangs have joined with various organized crime factions in a multitude of illegal activities, from cigarette smuggling to alien smuggling and from drug dealing to weapons trafficking. The list goes on, all operating under the tribal veil of sovereignty. Robinson also turns to the former Soviet Union, where the void left by the collapse of the communist system has become fertile ground for plunder.
Crimes range from the brutally violent to the cunningly brilliant and high-tech.
But perhaps the scariest cases mentioned in the book involve the smuggling of nuclear material to destinations with emerging weapons programs, such as Iraq. Agency successes are limited by red tape, limited jurisdictions, national boundaries, and inadequate funding. Criminal elements, the reader discovers, have an almost endless supply of cash and can cross international borders at will. In many cases, U.S. law enforcement agencies must rely on cooperation with their brethren in foreign lands. But it is clear that in many nations the judicial system is corrupt or practically nonexistent.