"The Dragon" Criminal Group Rules Supreme

Jurnalul National will present in its next issues details on an international criminal group, called "The Dragon," which operated unhindered for ten years in Romania and other eight countries.

The Dragon deployed the weapon of choice of such groups for shielding their operations from law enforcement agencies: corruption of high-level officials.

It started operating in 1995 and took advantage of the difficult transition process Romania underwent in its transformation towards a market economy. The change of government in the elections of 1996, 2000 and 2004 did not stop the Dragon in its pursuit of opportunities and faults in the legislative system it could exploit to its benefit.

The authorities have the names of the people who made this criminal group and of those that supported it.

For the time being, Jurnalul National presents a few characteristics such groups generally hold.

They are operating in networks which transcend national borders. They are highly organized, observing strict hierarchy and rules. Their main aim is maximizing profits, and few legal businesses can match the profit rate the criminal activities return.

They operate on market-economy principles and rapidly take on technologic advancement, often proving more flexible and better adapted than the law enforcement agencies.

And the free circulation of currencies, the new technologies for making payments, the enforcement of the bank account secrecy and the establishing of tax-free fiscal paradises are economic tools the criminal organizations use to their advantage.

Working in an organized crime group is a matter of choice and free association, but sometimes is a matter of giving in to blackmail or threats. In any case, strict discipline and secrecy are observed, for the criminal group to survive, even when one cell in the network falls.

Usually, the higher command echelons associate on the same ethnic, linguistic or principled line, while the lower ranks are a mix of the above.

When reaching full blown maturity, the networks retrain in "legalizing" their operations.

Some use legal companies as front for their operations. These may be small enterprises or big networks, including fictitious companies.

Once solidly settled in a certain political environment which it corrupted to its own benefit, the criminal network holds no interest in upsetting it. On the contrary, the political stability of the regime it corrupted ensures its successful business operation.

This is why criminal organizations are also interested in not getting public attention, though sometimes they attack persons in the state hierarchy in order to settle accounts.