All language subtitles for Lords.of.the.Mafia.with.Robert.Stack.S01E12.The.Mob.in.Europe.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

Rising from influences

of the American mafia,

the United Kingdom
spawned its own hard men,

still to this day regarded
as good-natured villains.

The Swinging Sixties
in Britain was darkened

by death and extortion
from the Great Twins

to the Great Train Robbery.

But do these old
dogs learn new tricks

as the wave once again rises

in a new style of
organized crime in Britain.

One of the remarkable
things about organized crime

and the way it operates
is how closely it mirrors

the corporate world.

It seems only a thin line
separates legitimate business

and the business
of the underworld.

After watching its enterprises
prosper for 30 years,

the mob in America by the early
1960s had to face a problem

that confronts many
legitimate businesses,

the pressing need to
expand their markets

to ensure economic survival.

In fact, it could
be said the mafia

was one of the first American
enterprises to go global,

a trend that has brought
together criminal groups

from all corners of the earth.

As the 1950s came to a close,

the mafia began
for the first time

to really feel the heat
of law enforcement.

The code of silence
began to crack

and increasingly,
American lawmakers and
the American public

began to peel away the mask

that had long hidden
the mob from scrutiny.

With the election of John
F. Kennedy as President

and his brother Robert
as Attorney General,

the winds of change were
blowing through America.

Under increasing public scrutiny

and increasing economic
pressure to find new customers

for criminal activities,

the hunt was on to
find new territories.

This uncertainty at home,

coupled with a loss of
lucrative crime markets

in nearby Cuba after
the leftist revolution

led by Fidel Castro,
forced some mafia bosses

to think beyond the
boundaries of America.

They turned their gaze
across the Atlantic

to the green fields of England,

a country that seemed
naive by American standards

and ripe for the picking.

Meyer Lansky, the mafia's
financial brain trust

was a man heading the mob's push

to set up business offshore.

One of Lansky's most trusted
deputy, Dino Cellini,

who had been banned
from The Bahamas,

was set off to England.

In London, Cellini ran
a croupier's school,

cashing in on the
boom in Britain

which followed the
legalizing of gambling clubs.

At the same time,

one time Hollywood motion
picture star George Raft

with longtime mafia connections
also moved to Britain

to run the Colony Club

and act as an ambassador
at large for the mafia.

The Americans had much to offer
the ringby speaking cousins

across the Atlantic,

especially when it
came to the fine points

of exploiting gambling,

which had just been
made legal in Britain.

But the British
authorities had other ideas

and most surely did not
put out the welcome mat.

After an initial
slowness to act,

authorities suddenly
moved in the mid 1960

to deport both Dino
Cellini and George Raft.

The stately Dorchester
Hotel in central London

was a setting for an
international crime
convention in 1966.

It was a meeting of
the kings of crime

called to carve up the
spoils in Europe and Britain.

But the meeting
had a downside too,

eventually leading to the
deportation of mafia members

who've been operating unhindered
in Britain for some years.

The Dorchester Hotel
meeting brought together

representatives of the
mafia in the United States,

the French Mafia, the heads
of British crime firms,

and representatives of
the Bally Corporation,

which operated poker machines
in both America and Britain.

Gentlemen.

Firstly, I'd like to
say a fine welcome

to our colleagues from
France and Germany,

members of our local
firm in the Kray lads,

and a very special welcome

to our friends from across
the Atlantic, the Cosa Nostra.

Now gentlemen, we all
know why we're here.

So as to prevent any
squabbling and bad feelings,

we've all come around the
table as civilized gentlemen

to see who gets what.

And believe me, there
is plenty to go around.

The
task was to work out

how best each could
exploit gambling,

which had recently
become legit in Britain,

and how organized crime
could gain control

of gambling in Spain.

But the crime bosses didn't know

is that there was a
spy in their midst.

American lawyer Herbert Itkin

had infiltrated the mob
several years earlier,

and routinely reported
back to the FBI.

Intelligence gathered
by Herbert Itkin

at the Dorchester Hotel
Convention of Crime

led to pressure on
the British government

to deport mafia
figure Dino Cellini

and American actor George Raft.

Their forced departure left
British authorities convinced

the American menace
had been driven off.

The mafia had not gained a
foothold on British soil.

Organized crime,
however, was not dead.

Britain's homegrown gang

simply stepped into
the mafia's shoes,

claiming the fields of
crime and corruption

all to themselves.

By the early 1960s,

Great Britain was awakening
from the conservatism

that had followed World War II.

These were the Swinging Sixties,

a time of sex, drugs,
and rock and roll.

Looming large in the
landscape of need and greed,

two men the British underworld
and the public alike

called the Terrible Twins,
Ronald and Reginald Kray.

The Krays controlled half
of the crime in London

while the Richardson
gang mastered the rest.

Ronnie and Reggie Kray were
truly typical of criminals

who grew up in postwar London,

tough, self-assured,
resourceful,
sometimes dangerous,

and always able to
exploit human weakness.

Back then, Larry Pope
was a raw recruit

who had just joined
the police force.

Now retired, he recalls
how much of an impact

the Krays had on London and
police officers like himself.

The United Kingdom organized
crime back in the seventies,

the face of it was the
Kray twins type of crime.

When it wasn't the violence
amongst themselves,

one of the most
violent crimes we had

in the sixties and seventies
was bank robberies.

There were other gangs
around at the time,

the names that come up
are the Richardsons,

pretty well known and recorded.

There was other ones,
the Tips brothers,

I seem to recall with
a scrap metal yard.

There were various
ones on the ascent,

and then things would happen

and they would either be
neutralized by a police effort

or neutralized by some
other internal problems.

Professor of Sociology

at Durham University in England,

Dick Hobbs, who's
made a detailed study
of British villains,

says the Kray twins
were heavily influenced

by movies of American
gangsters of the 1930s.

In many ways, what
has to be remembered

about the Kray twins
is that they operated

in the shadow of the mafia.

They liked the mafia, they
dressed like Chicago gangsters.

Sometimes they talked
like Chicago gangsters.

They drove American cars.

The American gangster
model was an ideal type

for people like the Kray
twins to actually copy.

In many ways, if you
look at them now,

it makes them look
absolutely ridiculous.

So I think the influence
of the American mafia

on the British crime scene
is money in terms of imagery

rather than structure.

Dick Hobbs,
who is the author of a book

called "Bad Business" which
examines English criminals

and their moneymaking rackets,
believes the American mafia

never intended to directly
control organized crime

in the United Kingdom.

The American mafia,
American organized crime

has always had a
presence in Britain.

It certainly in the 1960s
had a presence in Europe,

in London, rather, as
regards to gambling.

And they were welcomed
by the local villains

because they brought with
them a great deal of clout,

they brought with them money,

and also they brought
with them a glamour

that British organizers
crime has never had.

So for instance,
in the Colony Club

in London's West End,
you had a situation there

where George Raft, who
was the American film star

who's closely connected
to the American mob,

was almost resident there.

A lot of mafia money passed
through the Colony Club.

And I think that really was
an introduction to the way

in which global organized crime
was gonna go in the future,

in that you could
have a presence,

you could have a
commercial presence,

and you would have formal but
mainly informal collaborations

will be set up with
local villains.

Even if the
mafia had wanted full control

of Britain's underworld,

it was unlikely they
would've achieved that goal

according to
investigative journalist

and author on organized
crime Bob Bottom.

It really epitomizes
a sort of a syndrome

that's peculiar to the UK
and that is that the UK

as an old imperial power
may have sent people

all over the world, but
they don't take too kindly,

whether it's the
Triads, American mafia,

or Australian or whether
they call down under,

you know, gangsters coming in.

And that protects the patch
of the organized type group.

To understand the workings
of British organized crime,

we have to go back to
the Docklands of London

before World War II,

when a man with the
unlikely name of Billy Hill

was the name in organized crime.

Billy Hill was probably
the best organized criminal

Britain has ever had,

maintaining a firm grip
on illegal gambling dens

and nightclubs in London by
out-thinking would-be rivals.

And when necessary, using his
not inconsiderable body bulk

to instill fear.

Hill, who died a millionaire
at the age of 73,

was a role model for a whole
generation of villains,

including Ronnie
and Reggie Kray.

Years later in a book titled
"Villains We Have Known,"

Reggie Kray wrote
that when he was 20,

a man he most wanted to emulate

was a former gang boss of
London's underworld, Billy Hill.

Billy Hill was probably
as near as we've gotten

to a godfather of British crime.

This guy was very, very
clever, involved in burglary,

involved in receiving, involved
in illegal drinking clubs,

and also involved in gambling.

And he taught the business of
gambling to the Kray twins.

And this coincided in the early
1960s with the Gambling Act,

which made gambling legal.

So suddenly these guys with
a knowledge of gambling

were able to go legitimate
or semi-legitimate.

And the Kray twins
very, very quickly

built up this reputation
for themselves

of running gambling clubs,
but they could never let go.

They could never let
go of the illegal life.

The illegal life, the
life of the villain,

is very attractive to young
men and certainly to the Krays,

it was far too attractive
to go legitimate.

In the 1960s,

the influence of the Kray
twins spread rapidly.

Ronnie Kray was the
public front man,

often photographed in
nightclubs with entertainers

and leggy showgirls.

But it was all just show.

Ronnie Kray was homosexual.

Ronnie and Reggie Kray had
an almost obsessive affection

for their mother Violet, a
cheerful and strong-minded woman

who largely brought
the boys up on her own

with the help from her
eldest son Charlie.

Apart from their mother the
twins had another passion,

boxing, something they shared
with big brother Charlie.

The twins showed real
promise and at 17

looked set for careers
as professional fighters.

But they were called
up for military service

and the army refused
to let the twins work

as physical fitness instructors.

The pair spent most
of the next two years

either in the brig
or on the run.

They were now heading
towards the life of crime.

Discharged from the army,

the Krays took
over a snooker club

that was not only in
financial trouble,

but had patrons who
did nothing but brawl.

Within months, the
Krays turned it around

and the rise up the ladder of
London's underworld had begun.

By 1959, Ronnie Kray's behavior

became more and more bizarre.

He was suffering from
paranoid schizophrenia,

something that added to the
Kray's reputation for violence.

Ronnie was put on medication

which he took all
the rest of his life.

Despite his mental illness,

the Kray firm
continued to prosper.

They took over nightclubs
and gambling lounges,

largely thanks to the more
serious and sane efforts

of Reggie Kray.

In 1963, the Kray twins,

along with the rest
of the nightclub set,

watched the Profumo
affair unfold.

John Profumo, the
senior minister

in the McMillan government,
was exposed for his dalliance

with call girls Christine
Keeler, a brunette beauty

and Mandy Rice-Davies,
a blonde bombshell.

The girls in turn had
links to a Soviet diplomat

operating in Britain.

The Profumo scandal
had hardly subsided

when Britain was rocked again,

this time by an
audacious military-style
robbery of a train

carrying millions of
pounds worth of old notes

which were destined
for destruction.

The Kray twins had
originally been offered

a part in the robbery, but
for reasons unknown declined.

On August 8th, 1963
in the dead of night,

a dozen villains held up the
London to Glasgow Mail train,

and in just half an hour,

unloaded two and a half
tons of used bank notes

worth at least 60
million American dollars
in today's money.

For the Krays it was fortunate
they stayed out of the heist.

Most of the villains
were quickly rounded up

and sent to jail for
30 years or more.

Today, the gang nicknamed
the Great Train Robbers

are all either still in jail
for other crimes or dead.

All that is except
one, Ronald Biggs,

who still lives in Brazil

after fleeing there
nearly 30 years ago

following a prison breakout.

For the Kray twins,
the next big deal

was involvement in a dubious
housing project in Nigeria.

That brought Ronnie
Kray into contact

with bisexual labor
politician Lord Boothby.

Ronnie wanted Boothby
to help finance

the unstable Nigerian project.

One of Britain's tabloids
got hold of pictures

of the pair at a
business meeting

and ran the whole
story under the banner

"The Peer and The Gangster."

Lord Boothby sued and got
40,000 pounds damages.

The publicity helped
propel the Kray twins,

especially Ronnie,
to public notoriety.

Despite widespread reportage
of his homosexuality,

Ronnie Kray was
nevertheless touchy

about his sexual tendencies.

Villain George Cornell,
a large bull-necked man

who some described as a
sick sadistic bastard,

enjoyed taunting Ronnie
Kray about being gay.

The Krays had another
reason to dislike Cornell.

They believed he was responsible

for the earlier shooting death
of their cousin Dickie Hart.

And the
Kray twins greatly built up

a certain animosity
to a rival gang

on the south side of the Thames

called the Richardson Brothers.

It was heading for a war,

for an all out war
between these two groups.

And an old enemy of the Kray
twins called George Cornell,

who had allied himself
to the Richardsons,

was drinking in a
pub in the East End

called The Blind Beggar.

Reputedly, George Cornell
had said something

to the words of that
Ronnie Kray was a fat poof.

Ronnie Kray got a gun,

took his driver to
The Blind Beggar pub.

Hi there, Ronnie!

He walked
up to George Cornell,

Cornell turned around and
muttered something to him.

You poof there, Ronnie.

I've had enough of you.

Ronnie Kray shot
him in the head.

And sometime later he
died, he died in hospital.

Police
wasted no time arresting

Ronnie and Reggie Kray
over the Cornell killing.

But by now, the Kray's
reputation both as ruthless men

and celebrities preceded them.

Witnesses to the slaying
in The Blind Beggar Hotel

either couldn't or wouldn't
identify the Krays in a lineup.

Authorities are left with no
choice but to drop the case.

The decision not to prosecute

seemed to spur the Krays
on to new excesses.

I think what's
happened with the Kray twins

in East London is they've
become quite iconic figures.

We had, I think at last count,

there was something
like 15 books written

about the Kray twins.

There's a film, a feature
film been made about the Krays

featuring the Kemp brothers,
a couple of pop stars.

There are endless TV
programs about the Krays

and they've become cult heroes.

They become cult heroes

'cause they seem to
represent to people

a kind of golden
age of East London,

a golden age of
working class society

where villains were
villains, men were men,

women knew their place,

and disputes were worked out
as men should work them out.

This actually isn't true.

The reason that the sixties
were good for East London

was there was full employment
and not because the Kray twins

were walking the
streets carrying Lugers.

In mid 1967,

Reggie Kray's
estranged wife Frances

killed herself by
overdosing on pills.

Her death had a profound
effect on Reggie,

plunging the normally
sensible and placid Reg

into a deep depression.

That depression ultimately
led to the self-destruction

of the Kray twins' crime empire.

Reggie Kray started drinking
heavily and became morose,

plotting the death of fellow
villain Jack the Hat McVitie,

who was not much more than a
hanger on in the Kray gang.

Jack the Hat, who
never took his hat off

because it hid a bald patch,

irritated Reggie because he
was a loud mouth, a drunk,

a drug taker, and
a woman basher.

In the autumn of 1967,

Jack the Hat was invited to
a party at Stoke Newington.

It was to be his last.

Waiting for him, Reggie
Kray plunged the knife deep

into the unsuspecting
Jack McVitie.

The murder of Jack the Hat

was the last straw for
the British establishment,

which until now had put up
with the Kray brothers' antics.

In the spring of '68,

police swooped and arrested
both Ronnie and Reggie Kray

for the murders of Jack
McVitie and George Cornell.

Once it was obvious

the Krays were in real trouble
with the law this time,

many of their criminal cohorts
gave evidence against them.

If you look at the
organization of the Kray twins,

the Kray twins had back in
the sixties, for instance,

you had the twins at the top,

then there were two or three
lieutenants under them.

And then after that,

it was a completely
disorganized mutating group

of mainly of hangers on.

If you look at the way that
the Krays were wiped out

or dealt with by the
authorities, by the police,

whoever, that's
quite interesting

is that once they got
one or two informants

within the so-called structure

of the Kray twins' enterprise,

then the whole
structure collapsed.

It went very, very quickly.

Ronnie and Reggie Kray

were sentenced to
life imprisonment

with a minimum of
30 years to serve.

The twins were 35 years old

and had no prospect
of being free again

until the turn of the century.

Walk into The Blind
Beggar pub today,

you'll not only find the decor
unchanged from the sixties,

but also the attitudes to
these local folk heroes

called the Kray twins.

If you're lucky, you may get

the Ronnie Kray George Cornell
shooting fully described,

or you may get silence.

We found The Blind
Beggar regulars

willing to describe just a
little of that fateful day.

People still do come
in just to take pictures

and ask the same
questions you're asking,

where was Georgie Cornell shot?

And they still get the same
answer. He was shot in the here.

But most of us
don't talk about it

because it's a long time ago
and it was just one incident.

That's all. Too much
have been made of it.

I didn't know them personally,

but I've been told that
they really did help out

the elderly people
in the East End.

They looked after
them financially,

made sure that nobody
was bothering them.

I know they were
known as villains,

which they probably were,

but they looked after
their own people

and that's what counts,
looking after your own.

A lot of people say it's a pity

that the Krays
weren't around now,

that they would certainly
stop a lot of the violence

that's going on around here.

I accept the
observation that was made

and it was made to me
as a police officer

that the Krays were good
to their own community.

People felt that whilst the
Krays were running the show,

if you like, in the East
End, then others weren't.

And because the
Krays were recognized

as being in the more top
echelon of criminality,

then they wouldn't allow
other persons to steal from

or damage or injure persons
who lived in that same area.

I think that was more
myth than reality.

We did have a lot of
assaults and ordinary crime,

just not the same
degree as we have today.

It was a myth, it was a
bit of a Robin Hood myth

or any other Dick Turpin type
thing, as a police officer,

of course, Robin Hood, Dick
Turpin, any of them you like,

they're just downright crooks

and I have no fondness
for them at all.

In March 1995,

Ronnie Kray died of a heart
attack in Broadmoor Prison

at the age of 61.

His funeral turned into one
of the biggest public events

East End London had ever seen.

Thousands upon thousands
of ordinary people

lined the streets to
say farewell to Ronnie.

When he was younger, Ronnie
told his twin brother

when he died he wanted
his coffin drawn by
six black horses.

Reg Kray made sure his
brother's wish came true.

- You all right, Ronnie?
- Yep.

Ronnie
Kray left this world

a working class hero.

His brother laid to rest,

Reggie Kray was returned
to Maidstone Prison

to see out the last years
of his 30 year sentence.

While the Krays
were on the inside,

on the outside the whole
world had changed forever.

Very little remain
of what was London

in the Swinging Sixties
when Reggie and Ronnie Kray

were the Mr. Bigs
of the underworld.

Even the Dockland,

the heart of the Krays'
working class territory

is different.

Smart townhouses now stand

where rundown
warehouses once stood.

The personal computer
has replaced the shotgun

as a weapon of choice for
villains in today's Britain.

Even crime itself has changed.

It has become a mega business

where drugs are the holy grail.

The real difference
between then and now

is the marketplace.

The amount of money that is
to be made from crime now

is absolutely enormous.

If you look at the Kray twins,
for instance in the 1960s,

although they were
regarded as the kings

of the London underworld, if
you look at the amount of money

they actually made from it,

it wasn't very much at all.

If you look at the amount of
money which is available now

in the criminal marketplace,
it is fantastic.

And that's mainly due
to the drugs trade.

From the mid 1970s onwards,

the drugs trade
expanded at such a rate

and the demand for
recreational drugs

expanded at such a rate

that there is far more
money involved now.

I think you can compare it
to the computing industry.

If you go back to
the early 1970s,

computing industry in
Britain was very, very small

and there wasn't
that much money then.

Now it's absolutely enormous.

We've all got
computers on our desks,

we've all got
computers in our homes.

Similarly with drugs.
Drugs are everywhere now.

Drugs are consumed by a
considerable proportion

for the British population

and the marketplace
to provide those drugs

is absolutely huge.

So I think drugs is very big.

Law
enforcement in Britain

couldn't agree more.

The drug trade is a vast money
maker and a major problem.

The director of Britain's

National Crime Intelligence
Service, Vincent Harvey.

It's been
seen heroin has become

a much more fashionable, a
much more acceptable drug

over the last few years.

Cocaine is also a steady drug.

We have a lot of
that coming over.

Crack came over something like
I would guess 10 years ago.

We didn't have the crack
explosion that was forecast,

but it has slowly and
insidiously spread

throughout the whole
of the United Kingdom

and we can find pockets
of people taking
crack all the time.

And of course, what
these people generally do

is mix their drugs.

You know, the
incredible high they get

from something like crack,

a lot of people will then
take some heroin after that

in order to prolong it.

It gives you a longer
lasting escape from reality.

So we're quite heavily users
of all those powder drugs.

Very worrying for us
in the UK, of course,

is we're probably the
world's largest market

for synthetic drugs.

The amphetamines
and ecstasy, LSD,

and there's a whole of these,

I won't go through
all the titles,

but yes, for the synthetic
manufactured drugs,

we're a very large market
structured a lot around

some of the club
and dance culture

for things like ecstasy,
but also amphetamines

and the others I've said
have become very popular.

Drugs trade in Britain
does reign supreme

in terms of organized crime.

It is different from the US

in that the drugs which are
used, I mean, for instance,

in this country in Britain,
throughout the 1990s,

ecstasy has been a very,
very important drug

as part of youth culture

and therefore, as part of the
organized criminal culture

and the organized
criminal business.

If you look at the
US, it's nowhere near

as central to youth
culture or to the business.

So each criminal marketplace

does generate its own
kinds of practices

and is different not only
in different countries,

but in different
parts of the country.

There are parts of
Britain, for instance,

that does not have
a cocaine culture,

where cocaine isn't popular.

There are other parts of Britain

where cocaine is very popular.

And again, it's to do
with the marketplace.

If you look at the
price of cocaine,

it's the same price now
as it was 10 years ago.

In fact, it's
marginally cheaper.

It was 50 pound 10 years ago,
50 pound a gram 10 years ago.

It's now down to
about 40 pound a gram.

Well, that's not expensive.

10 years ago it was
regarded as quite expensive.

So you've got fashion,
you've got prices,

you've got trends which emerge
in the criminal marketplace

in the same that they do in
a legitimate marketplace.

One of the biggest
single factors

influencing organized
crime in Britain

and the rest of Europe was
the collapse of communism.

Not only did the political
walls come tumbling down,

but so too the economic
divide between East and West.

With every symbolic
blow of the hammer,

Europe began the
process of unification.

One market, one
currency, one Europe,

and one large new target
for organized crime.

The organized crime market

is like the legitimate crime
market and it's gone global.

And that's mainly
because of drugs.

So if anyone wants to be
involved in the drugs trade

in Britain now, they
are gonna have some link

with overseas crime groups.

That's the way it is.

And it's certainly the
case that every nationality

has its own crime group.

Whether you're talking about
Lebanese, Russian, Colombian

German, they've all got
their own crime group

and there will be an influence
upon British society.

However, it's very important

that we stress that the
majority, the huge majority

of organized criminals in
Britain are indigenous.

They're home grown.

We haven't got Russian
criminals on the streets.

There are no burglars
called Boris, for instance.

We've got our own burglars,
we've got our own drug dealers.

But certainly I think what
we have seen is the influence

of foreign organized crime
money on our streets.

Countries
like Holland, Belgium, Germany

and France have all had to
adapt to the new Europe.

That means even illegitimate
business or organized crime

has faced increased competition

for what used to be
Eastern Bloc Europe.

Britain's National Criminal
Intelligence Service

believes that crime
in the United Kingdom

has changed so much
in recent years,

that what they're
dealing with now

is essentially Euro crime.

Predominantly, as I say,
it is British criminals

who run the organized
crime within the UK.

We have several other groups.

The largest groups
are those of the,

we refer to them
as Turkish groups,

but it's all from
that part of Europe.

They're responsible pretty
much for the majority,

something like 90% of
the heroin importations.

Of course heroin is the
big trade at the moment

and the big profit maker.

And we're seeing
increasing signs

of other nationalities
coming over

and each ethnic group is
bringing its own crime.

And we've seen that on illegal
immigration for example,

certain groups are
bringing in people

from their own area of the
world where they've come from.

Belgium based
criminologist Cyril Fijnaut

says there are signs that
crime has gone global,

especially the Russians.

But he cautions against
exaggeration of the threat.

Many people
are talking about the threat

of the Russian mob, of
the Russian Red Mafiya.

And indeed also in
northwestern Europe

we see clear signs of them,

particularly in the forms of
killings and cases of extortion

and to some extent, money
laundering operations.

And particularly in those
cities or those regions

where you have
already traditionally

a more or less large
Russian community

that makes it of course quite
easy for Russian mobsters

to hide away and to
build up a foothold

in foreign countries.

But to say that the
Russian or the Red Mafiya

is really a big
threat for Germany

or for Holland or Belgium,

that would be an
enormous exaggeration.

If you would take
the last analysis

prepared by the Belgium
police authorities

or the Dutch ones
or the German ones,

and then you would come,
I guess to the conclusion

that nearly five, six, 7%

of the cases they
have dealt with

are related to Russian
organized crime.

Professor
Dick Hobbs of Durham University

echoes his sentiments
about overemphasizing

the threat from abroad.

We need to be very wary

of blaming organized crime
on foreign nationals.

And it is a tendency you can see

in some parts of the
British police force.

If you blame foreign
nationals for organized crime,

it creates more of a shock,
it creates more of a panic

and the chances are
that your budgets

are likely to go up to deal
with this terrible problem

that's coming from overseas

as opposed to dealing with
quite mundane, boring,

indigenous criminals
who have been around

for an awful long time,

there's not a really
good story there.

So I think we need
to be wary of saying,

of screaming that the aliens
are coming every few weeks

when actually, we've
got a good mixture

of villains in this country.

Some of them happen
to be foreign,

but the large bulk of
them are homegrown.

Across
the English Channel

it seems homegrown is also the
catch cry of organized crime

as author of numerous
books on the underworld

Bob Bottom explains.

The French underworld,

not the underground
but the underworld

is pretty powerful
in its own right

and I don't think that
they'll have much room

for any other outsiders to
emerge to any great extent

except that where appropriate,

you'll find that French
criminals may link up

with some from Italy or Belgium

or in particular sometimes
with those in Britain

to pull off something.

It may well be sometimes more
in the realm of a bank heist

or some commercial fraud.

But generally speaking,
in organized crime terms,

they run their own
race on their own soil.

According
to Professor Dick Hobbs,

criminals operating in
a Europe with no borders

simply cannot afford
to remain insular.

So the
borders coming down

have had an influence.

It's easier to get
around in Europe now,

it's easier to get
stuff across borders.

In terms of policing, however,
there are real problems there

in that the European
Union is trying to adapt

to the new criminal
opportunities which
are coming up.

But you've got so many
different jurisdictions there,

we're a long way from
getting to the point

where police in Europe
can cross borders

and cross jurisdictions
with the same impunity

that organized criminals

can cross jurisdictions
and cross borders.

When
the barriers came down

between East and Western Europe,

a signal arise in the fortunes
of extreme right wing groups.

Behind the facade
of racism though,

often stood good old
fashioned criminal thugs

taking advantage of people's
fears and frustrations.

Some social scientists
believe Europe today

has all the makings for a
real problem in the future

with a growing number
of street gangs.

Professor Emeritus
at the University of
Southern California

Professor Malcolm Klein

who spent a lifetime studying
gangs in America and elsewhere

says Europe is
something of a paradox.

We've been looking
at the gang situation

in Europe fairly recently,
the last several years.

I've had a chance
to be over there

and visit some of the cities
and see what's going on.

We talk about the
Euro gang paradox,

which really means that
the many European cities,

many European
officials are denying

that they have street gangs

because they say, well,
they don't look like

the Cripps and the
Bloods in Los Angeles,

or they don't look
like the Latin Kings

and the Gangster
Disciples in Chicago,

therefore we don't have gangs.

The fact is, of course,
that in America,

most American gangs don't
look like that either.

So when you look at the real
structures of American gangs,

these informal structures,
these informal youth gatherings,

if you will, and then you
look at those groups in Europe

that have been developing
over the last 10 years or so,

you find that Europe
does have street gangs

in some of its cities.

We've identified, I have to
count, but 12 or 15 cities

that have street gang
problems in Europe

and some of them surprising.

But on the other hand,

there are many, many,
many cities in Europe,

far more than in the US that
don't have street gangs.

So it's a fairly new phenomenon.

They're not well organized,

they're not involved
in the drug trade.

They have very few firearms

and that's a major
difference between America.

We've been talking with
European researchers

and in fact, trying to
get more of them involved

in looking at this
group gang situation

in order to get a sense

for what the European
gang looks like,

nevermind whether or not it
fits the American tradition,

but to take advantage of
American data to start them off.

There is a growing
problem in Europe

and if European cities
continue to develop

urban underclass problems

with their refugee
and immigrant groups,

they will continue to
increase their gang problem.

However,
European crime expert

Professor Cyril
Fijnaut feels Europe

does not yet have a problem
of America's magnitude.

We are
not confronted with
such gang problems

here in Western Europe,
neither in Amsterdam,

neither in Paris, nor in Berlin
or in Brussels or anywhere.

That doesn't mean that
we don't have gangs here.

And we see the last 10, 15 years

and we see, let's say the
beginning of such a development

and not only in
immigrant communities,

but also in domestic, in
the domestic population

that we see indeed that in
some quarters of big cities

we see indeed that boys,
sometimes girls group together,

try to build up
something like a gang,

commit crimes in such a context.

But there's large gang problem
linked to organized crime,

to established organized
crime families,

like for example, in
the Chinese community

in the United States or in
the Vietnamese community.

That is a thing we don't
see here up to this moment.

European authorities
are taking what may be

a more conservatory attitude

than that shown by
law enforcement in
the United States.

Most
European countries

have taken a different approach
to delinquency and crime

generally than we have.

They're much less
punitive than we are.

They're much more concerned
with social service aspects.

For instance, in several
European countries,

kids don't get turned
over to law enforcement

until they're at
least 16 years old.

The police simply
cannot handle them.

They have to turn them over
to social service agencies

and community committees.

So their whole approach to
working with young people

is somewhat different from ours
and this will affect the way

in which they're going to
handle their gang problems.

Street gangs are one
of the very public faces

of organized crime, doing
deals openly on the streets,

drugs, counterfeiting,
and strong arm tactics.

But there is also a
quiet face to crime

in Britain and Europe.

So important financially is
that gray zone of business

where the illegal
and legal meet,

that whole communities thrive
only because of what's called

a night economy.

What we've
seen since the late 1980s

is a real revolution, I think,

in organized crime in Britain,

and that is the emergence
of a nighttime economy

in cities in Britain, which
were basically shut down

after six o'clock at night,

cities which were built upon
a Victorian industrial past.

And that industry has now gone,

we live in a
post-industrial age.

The only way in which
they can attract money,

attract inward investment,

is by developing a
nighttime economy.

Now, that nighttime economy

is now riddled with
organized crime.

Whether it's bouncers
running the door,

whether it's the
provision of drugs,

whether it's the provision of
criminal services generally,

or whether it's as an outlet
to loan them illegal money

through the nighttime economy,

clubs, pubs, and bars has
become a very important outlet

for organized crimes to develop.

And I think we're
gonna see that,

that's gonna go on
in the years to come.

But
Professor Cyril Fijnaut

feels that the so-called
underground economy

is somewhat overestimated
and overemphasized.

Never dare to
support this thesis.

And even in Italy where
you have a dominant,

where the mafia groupings,

particularly in the
southern part of Italy,

to some extent really control

the economic
activities in cities.

There of course you
have a big problem

like in the big cities
in the United States

where Cosa Nostra families
control the transport sector

or the waste disposal sector
or the construction industry.

There of course you
have a huge problem,

but that is not a
problem that is common

in Western Europe these days.

Organized
crime has always had

a sinister ability to
feed off human weakness.

As long as people have
unfulfilled needs,

then it seems organized crime
will always be close by,

motivated by greed, ready to
make desire reality at a price.

British and European crime
firms have like old dogs

learned new tricks to
meet new customer demands

in a changing world,

a world where crime
knows no boundaries,

where crime truly is
big global business.

I'm Robert Stack,
thanks for joining us.