Mafia and Globalization: The Consequences of Economic Integration Without Legal Symmetry
Bibliographic record
Abstract
This project will examine the relationship between mafia and globalization through the lenses of two case studies, focusing on the Calabrian criminal organization known as ‘Ndrangheta. The first case study revolves around the Port of Gioia Tauro, which serves as the drug trafficking hub of ‘Ndrangheta and is emblematic of the overall trends in global commercial traffic and security deficits. The purpose of this case study is to demonstrate how ‘Ndrangheta exploits the advanced economic integration that began in the 1990s and continues to exist in the gap between frantic commercial activity and limited government oversight. This case study begins with a brief history of the port, including its initial development as a state-funded project in the 1970s and eventual privately funded transformation into a commercial transshipment hub in the 1990s. The case study lays out the unique features of the port, such as its expansive size, enormous levels of traffic, and limited security infrastructure. Finally, the Port of Gioia Tauro case study analyzes the criminal history of the port, initial attempts by ‘Ndrangheta to extort its financers, and the port’s continued use as a drug trafficking hub. This case study analyzes economic trends and how they facilitate drug trafficking, and why the port is particularly vulnerable to this exploitation. Important sources in this section include the European Commission’s published evaluation of the port, EU drug seizure data, the literature on ‘Ndrangheta drug trafficking deals and methods, commentary on crime and commerce from Gomorra, and several news reports documenting criminal activity relating to the port. The project features an intermediate section linking the two case studies, which discusses ‘Ndrangheta structure and how it gives them an advantage in exploiting global economic integration and insufficient global legal integration. This intermediate section relies on the criminal analysis of Calabria’s head anti-mafia prosecutor, Nicola Gratteri. ‘Ndrangheta uses a horizontal structure that can be readily replicated in Calabrian communities around the world, primarily those in Canada, Australia, Germany, and Argentina. ‘Ndrangheta clans can make independent business arrangements and specialize in different types of criminal enterprise, adapting to different environments and legal systems around the world. The ability to operate outside of Italy also helps protect ‘Ndrangheta operations from Italian law enforcement, as demonstrated by the second case study. The second case study focuses on an incident from 2011 in which Italian law enforcement attempted to extradite former Australian mayor Tony Vallelonga for his association
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.003 | 0.005 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.003 | 0.003 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.011 | 0.035 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.010 | 0.009 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.012 |
| Research integrity | 0.003 | 0.004 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.008 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".