Network structure and resilience of Mafia syndicates

Abstract

In this paper we present the results of the study of Sicilian Mafia organization by using Social Network Analysis. The study investigates the network structure of a Mafia organization, describing its evolution and highlighting its plasticity to interventions targeting membership and its resilience to disruption caused by police operations. We analyze two different datasets about Mafia gangs built by examining different digital trails and judicial documents spanning a period of ten years: the former dataset includes the phone contacts among suspected individuals, the latter is constituted by the relationships among individuals actively involved in various criminal offenses. Our report illustrates the limits of traditional investigation methods like tapping: criminals high up in the organization hierarchy do not occupy the most central positions in the criminal network, and oftentimes do not appear in the reconstructed criminal network at all. However, we also suggest possible strategies of intervention, as we show that although criminal networks (i.e., the network encoding mobsters and crime relationships) are extremely resilient to different kind of attacks, contact networks (i.e., the network reporting suspects and reciprocated phone calls) are much more vulnerable and their analysis can yield extremely valuable insights.

Combined Heuristic Attack Strategy on Complex Networks

“…Under such term, terrorist networks, fake-news spreading networks, malnets or botnets used in DDoS attacks, or for spreading worms and viruses, dark networks involved in various criminal activities like illegal arm selling or child pornography, and so forth can be understood [14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. Attack strategies on such harmful complex networks (i.e., node deletion and occasionally also edge deletion) are studied in [21][22][23].…”

Dark networks : criminal collaboration in Australian police forces

“…Calderoni also found that actors in more central positions in the network were not necessarily associated with high-status members. These findings were supported by Agreste, Catanese, De Meo, Ferrara and Fiumara's (2016) study into the Sicilian Mafia in Italy. They found that "criminals high up in the organization hierarchy do not occupy the most central positions in the criminal network, and oftentimes do not appear in the reconstructed criminal network at all" (Agreste et al, 2016, p. 30), thus suggesting that centrality in a network does not mean that you need to hold a powerful position.…”

“…Previous research has explored the operations within a number of different criminal networks, for example drug trafficking networks (Morselli, 2001(Morselli, , 2003, terrorist networks (Krebs, 2001), transnational illegal networks (Bruinsma & Bernasco, 2004), Mafia networks (Agreste et al, 2016;Cayli, 2010;Paoli, 2003), organised crime networks (Le & Lauchs, 2013;Levi, 2008) and police corruption networks Lauchs, Keast, & Le, 2011;Lauchs, Keast, & Yousefpour, 2011). Research into these networks has found that each of these networks displays unique characteristics that enable them to operate covertly.…”

“…The opaque nature of these networks, coupled with the norms that support hidden goals and agendas can, therefore, provide a firm foundation for corruption to thrive. As noted in Chapter Three, previous research (see Agreste et al, 2016;Morselli, 2009) has distilled particular operating characteristics of other dark networks, such as terrorist and organised crime networks; however, the structure of police corruption networks remains under-explored. Furthermore, trust is referred to as the glue that holds criminal networks together and is a fundamental element within dark networks that aids in the facilitation and operation of these networks.…”

“…These studies suggest that organised crime syndicates display network structures rather than the traditional hierarchical structures (Morselli, 2009a). In particular, studies have uncovered that some organised crime groups operate through different network structures (centralised versus decentralised, loose versus close connections, cliques or sub-groups) (Agreste et al, 2016;Bouchard, 2007;Lauchs, Keast, & Yousefpour, 2011;Malm & Bichler, 2011). Prior research has also found that some criminal networks are structured around roles and key players within the network (Bruinsma & Bernasco, 2004;Kleemans, 2008;Morselli, 2001).…”