This adaptability allows them to maximise profits and minimise the risk of interception. Many operate in the legitimate and illegitimate world simultaneously. Their profits from the criminal world are laundered into legitimate businesses and the world's financial markets. Drugs profits are shifted into resorts and casinos which then launder money for other criminal organisations. The internal dynamics of the criminal economy are often described by the popular press as being obscure and inspired by a mysterious logic ultimately eluding analysis.
Illegal markets have much in common with their legal counterparts.
There are buyers and sellers, wholesalers and retailers, go-betweens, importers and distributors. They have price structures, balance sheets, profits and, less frequently, losses. They are multifaceted but, unlike their legitimate counterparts, are rarely interested in long term development of their firm or their community. However, their violent resolution of problems may leave behind numerous corpses and consequent destruction of families, while the drug trade they promote has devastating costs for societies throughout the world. Organised crime groups threaten the very principles of democracy.