Organized crime may have brought in more than $2 trillion in revenue last year, about twice all the military budgets in the world combined, said a report quoted by the Associated press. The “State of the Future” report from the Millennium Project of the World Federation of United Nations Associations said organized crime entities generated income from money laundering, counterfeiting and piracy, and the trafficking of drugs, people, and arms.
It singled out North Korea, which it said makes an estimated $500 million to $1 billion annually from criminal enterprises. Despite the work of international organizations like the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, the report said organized crime “continues to grow and has not surfaced on the world agenda in the way that poverty, water, and sustainable development have.” “This is gigantic and it’s not being addressed well,” said Jerome Glenn, an author of the report. The report called organized crime one of the most pressing global issues to be addressed in the next 10 years, with global warming, terrorism, corruption, and unemployment.
Link: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-09-10-3990070534_x.htm