SPAINA criminal hub

Alejandra Gómez-Céspedes

Kateřina Chytilová323 201

Structure

• Drugs and humans• Robberies and thefts• A typology of organised crime• Corruption as an issue in the country• The police• Costums and excise• Corruption in politics• Corruption in the judicial sector• Corruption in the private sector • Conclusion

SPAIN

• 2011 – Europol Organised Crime Threat Assessment (OCTA) Report:

Spain is one of the five criminal hubs in Europe and it is the main south-west entry point for the importation of drugs and illegal immigrants into Europe• Anti-organised crime units, offices and centers

within law enforcement bodies but organized crime is still significant

Drugs and humans

• Transit country• Distribution center • Consumer

Data

• The only agency which collects and holds raw police data relevant to organized crime at the national level is Ministry of the Interior

• Question of validity• the published data are incomplete or fragmented

• Since 2006 – CICO (Intelligence Center against Organised Crime) – drugs seizures from criminal organizations counted independently

• reports are not public

Smuggling of migrants• Coast – number of immigrants coming by boats has

decreased (also thanks to bilateral agreements) - in 2001 – 18,517 immigrants - in 2010 – 3,632 immigrants

• French-spanish border – semi-legal immigrants – enter the country with legal passport but stay under illegal conditions

• Impossibile to quantify – despite entry and exit controls Spain has no way to compare those who enter with those who leave and therefore those who remain illegally

Robberies and thefts

• Property crime – robbery in industrial estates, jewellery shops and dwellings

• Albanian and Romanian criminals• Demonstrations of Spanish Association of Jewellers,

Silversmiths and Watchmakers - costs of the sector:• 2000 – 17 million euros• 2001 – 32 million euros

• Hard to quantify but generally relatively low level

Typology• OCTA (Europol Organised Crime Threat Assessment) typology of organized groups:

1) interference with law enforcement and judicial processes by corruptive influence2) influence societies and economies3) elude law enforcement attention

- Rarely violence or intimidation- Growing number of foreigners, decreasing number of nationals

- 2010 – Ministry of Interior – report before a Parliamentary Commission:- The main regions: Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante, Malaga- The value of property seized from the organized crime criminal groups in 2009: 270

million euros

- 15% of criminal groups used influence and corruption in 2009- Multinational - Goal = profit

Corruption in Spain• 5th biggest problem• No definition in legal system

• Spanish Criminal Code of 1995:- Passive and active corruption of Spanish authorities and public officials (Articles 419-427)- Trading in influence (Articles 428-431)- Bribery in international transactions (Article 445a)- Offences against the Treasury (Articles 305-310)- Abuse of official authority (Articles 404-406)- Use and misuse of sensitive information (Article 418)- Misappropriation of public funds (Articles 432-435)- Fraud and extortion (Articles 436-438)- Negotiations prohibited to officials (Articles 439-441)- Illegal excercise functions (Articles 506-508) - Unlawful association (Article 515)

The way how government operates(ungovernance)

• hints at why corruption and organized crime are so favourable in Spain

• Reveal the existence of dysfunctional institutions which are the cause of social problems

• Clientelism, nepotism, cronyism, patronage, discrimination, patronage, lack of transparency are sometimes not strictly assimilated to corruption

Alejandra Nieto - Ungovernance• Analyses the IMPACT THE LAW HAS ON THE BEHAVIOUR OF THE RECEPIENTS (citizens, public

officials, administration and judges)

• A) citizes – law is intimidating - imperative norms that impose obbligations• B) public officials – law doesn´t possess a force and officials then dilute their responsibility in

a complex beaucratic system• C) public administration – non-performance doesn´t carry personal responsibility but

disciplinary action with no serious consequences• D) judiciary – criticizes direct but contradictory sentences depending on individual judges

• LAW as GUIDELINES given to the hands of judges knowing it will be partially implemented and partially it will depend on the interpretation of individual judges

• NIETO: this is a serious problem but common

• JUDICIAL POWER is not CONSTITUTIONAL POWER because it depends on political support – it is elected in Parliament (manipulation by parties) – also a sign of ungovernance – personal relations and interests, politics now is a business which competes on a market for personal benefits using corruption

The police

• Average level, usually doesn´t last for long• Internal Affairs Unit (at both National Police and Guard Civil)• 25 police corruption cases reported in Spanish press every

year since 1996• - Guard Civil linked to drug-trafficking network• - National Police• - Local Police• - Military

• 220 officers in prison in 2010

Customs and excise

• 2002 – the amount of tax evasion and carousel fraud activities broke records

• National Tax Agency – but still a lot to be done• Underground economy – big problem• Only 10% of the 500euro bankontes circulating

across financial institutions can be traced, 90% involved in illegal/informal circuits

• But not necessarily connected to organized crime groups

Political Corruption• 2008 – Report on Democracy in Spain by Fundación Alternativas:• 151 cases of town mayors and councillors with corruptuion

offcences since 2004• Also politicians from the three main parties /PP, PSOE, IU/ and

regional parties• Mostly related to local levels• MOST DISTURBING CONCLUSION: the analysis of the municipal

election results in those local goverment areas where accusations of political corruption were made and demonstrates limitations of the vote as a control mechanism for corruption as many of those mayors were elected in the following elections

• Confirms that: political corruption in Spannish planning and development sector is rampant at the local level.

• 2006 – EP: Auken Report on real estate, planning and development abuses in Spain. – threat to freeze ES funds for Spain until the abuses were addressed, but the cut was not binding

• The report portraited devastating image, but a realistic one of this sector in Spain – endemic in Spain, responsibility is on the public administration which tolerates these practises

• Report condemned judicials for being unprepared and unable to set up rules that would give compensations to victims

• Inactive, unbalanced and partial appartus, lacked clarity, precision and certainty, legislation was inadequate in relation to the right of ownership and environmental matters, lax judicial proceedings, endemic corruption, encouraging greend and spekulative conduct

• It was a third report for Spain by EU but the earlier didn´t threaten to withdraw the funding

Link between corruption and organized crime

• Depends on the definition of organized crime• United Nations (2004):• „an organized criminal group shall mean a

structured group of three or more persons, existing for a period of time, and acting in concert with the aim of committing one or more serious crimes or offences in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or other material benefit“

The judicial sector

• 2007 – Transparency International – report: the extent of corruption in general and judicial corruption especially

• Mendieta: 3 types of judicial corruption• 1) corruption in the courts• 2) judicial corruption in stricto senso• 3) the political influence of governing bodies

of the judicial system

Corruption in the courts

• Common in past, currently thanks to the computerization less common

• Concerning rather civil cervants than judges who abuse their positions to prioritize, speed up or delay certain proceedings, files or cases

Judicial corruption in stricto senso

• Voluntary loss of judicial impartiality in exchange for bribes or extortion to ensure favourable rulings

• exceptional

Political influence of governing bodies of the judicial system

• Higher levels are less likely to be corrupt (in terms of active or passive bribery) but are more exposed to political influence

• Mostly by those who contributed to their appointment

• Politicians put magistrates to the judicial governing bodies in order to put pressure on the local judges so that their political patrons may walk free

• Doesn´t have to be necessarily happening nonetheless judges are imposed to the political influence

Private sector corruption

• Containers - growing number of import and export companies being involved

• 2009 – hidden cocaine in containers with bananas -> arrests of workers in transportation and logistics

• 2010 – cocaine in containers distributed to different parts of Spain, the president of Terminal Cataluna accused from granting drug traffickers an important legal cover for the importation

Conclusion

• Efforts but activites don´t stop• Criminal organisations sometimes bribe law

enforcement officials in exchange for protection or information, transnational crime organizations can purchase immunity

• Problem of (un)availability of official data related to official crime

• Does in Spain exist corruption-organized crime nexus? Depends on the definition of organized crime.

Thank you for your attention.