{"id":4076,"date":"2024-09-02T12:11:33","date_gmt":"2024-09-02T10:11:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rivistaeco.com\/?p=4076"},"modified":"2024-09-02T12:11:33","modified_gmt":"2024-09-02T10:11:33","slug":"the-new-mafia-meets-in-the-metaverse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rivistaeco.com\/en\/2024\/09\/02\/the-new-mafia-meets-in-the-metaverse\/","title":{"rendered":"The New Mafia Meets in the Metaverse"},"content":{"rendered":"

The new generations of organised crime communicate through encrypted channels, meet in the metaverse, and pay with cryptocurrencies. For money laundering and reinvestment of clean money, they often resort to AI. As technology offers unprecedented opportunities to mafias, those who investigate must also learn to master these tools.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

In the digital age, the metamorphosis of the mafia has undergone a frantic acceleration. Today it is possible to purchase large quantities of drugs on the deep web, drastically reducing the risk of being identified thanks to the anonymity guaranteed by blockchain networks and end-to-end encryption. It is also possible to “mine” cryptocurrencies to use them as a medium of exchange. And for a few years now, it has been possible to participate in meetings with brokers and fixers of international drug trafficking using the metaverse without ever physically leaving home, represented by an avatar. New technologies have become indispensable. Those who do not adapt by renewing their human capital with sophisticated qualifications and effective IT skills risk disappearing. Those who fight mafia phenomena must also adapt with new investigative protocols and new professional skills. If well utilised, artificial intelligence can help investigators face the new reality of organised crime. As the mafiosi run, so must their adversaries.<\/span><\/p>\n

When Organised Crime Started Hiring Hackers<\/b><\/p>\n

In the 1990s in Montreal, Canada, there was a boss who feared publicity more than handcuffs. A man of few words, Nicol\u00f2 Rizzuto commanded without giving orders. He was terrified by the experience of his rival, Paul Violi, who in the mid-1970s had been extensively wiretapped by the police while talking in his bar in the Petite Italie of the French-speaking city. Those conversations, transcribed in a report that remained on a dusty shelf in the Agrigento police headquarters for ten years, were useful to Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino in confirming Tommaso Buscetta’s testimony at the Palermo maxi-trial, the one that for the first time demonstrated that the mafia was not an attitude, a behaviour, or worse, a disposition of the soul.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, mafiosi no longer fear carrying cell phones, fearing they have a “carabiniere in their pocket”, as a ‘ndrangheta boss recalled in Fino Mornasco in the province of Como. In the era of information technology and automation, mafias are increasingly hybrid and flexible, able to operate simultaneously in factual space and in the virtual space represented by social media, the dark web, and the three-dimensionality of the many metaverses\u2014the shared reality via the internet.<\/span><\/p>\n

A few decades ago, when talking about mafias, the image evoked was that of men with hardened faces intimidating entrepreneurs and trafficking in arms and cocaine. Today, while maintaining the same appearances and without having much specific knowledge, they are beginning to hire hackers and IT engineers, trying to exploit technological progress to their advantage.<\/span><\/p>\n

Analysing the path of the ‘ndrangheta, the most extensive, branched, and powerful criminal organisation in the world according to Europol, on this new front, three fundamental steps are noticeable.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first coincides with the 2013 discovery of the manipulation of the customs control system at the port of Antwerp carried out by hackers on behalf of some ‘ndrangheta brokers and the Belgian-Dutch mocro-mafia. The hackers bypassed controls, facilitating the undetected customs clearance of dozens of cocaine shipments from Latin America. In that instance, investigators found no traces of physical contact between brokers of the two criminal organisations and the cyber pirates used to breach the Belgian port’s control systems. However, it dramatically revealed the overall vulnerability of port security systems in managing millions of containers crossing the oceans daily.<\/span><\/p>\n

The second phase coincides with the 2016 operation Bruno, coordinated by the Milan Anti-Mafia District Directorate. On that occasion, some alleged ‘ndrangheta brokers hired two Romanian hackers who, through phishing, managed to steal millions of euros from unsuspecting citizens who thought they had to update their security systems on the advice of Poste Italiane. In that circumstance, investigators managed to identify the cyber pirates who, without leaving their country, had been contacted to orchestrate the online scam. According to the accusation, the money drained through phishing was used to purchase weapons in Moldova.<\/span><\/p>\n

The third phase introduces an absolute novelty that emerged during operation Glicine Acheronte, coordinated by the Catanzaro Anti-Mafia District Directorate in 2022. A prominent German hacker was contacted by members of a ‘ndrangheta group and invited to relocate to Calabria. The IT expert, also skilled in banking, was used to create clandestine trading platforms and fake guarantees. In this case, the interactions were not filtered through a screen, as in the Antwerp port affair, and did not occur abroad, as established during operation Bruno. For the first time, members of mafia organisations and hackers worked closely together in the criminal organisation’s home territory.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is easy to predict that the model seen during operation Glicine Acheronte could replicate thanks to the increasing use of new IT skills by criminal organisations. The same could be said for some Camorra groups which, as revealed by other investigations, have already managed to purchase large quantities of cocaine via the dark web.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Cosa Nostra Remains Anchored in the Past<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Is it possible to use the Darwinian paradigm of natural selection in the case of mafias? Paradoxically, one of the criminal organisations showing a tenacious resistance to ongoing changes is Cosa Nostra in its American form, represented by the five families of New York. Examining the list of crimes charged against them in the decade 2014-2024, the only crime managed online is gambling; the other offenses are all traditional, ranging from extortion to money laundering, from murder to fraud. This is a regression that, in the long run, could be decisive in the confrontation with other criminal realities that have already entered the heart of digital innovation, even with growing interest in artificial intelligence.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bosses in the Metaverse<\/b><\/p>\n

To understand the new perspective, it is worth going back in time when in 1956, John McCarthy coined the term “artificial intelligence.” That intuition accelerated in 2016 when AlphaGo, a machine built by DeepMind engineers, defeated Lee Sedol in the five rounds of a Go challenge\u2014a game much more complex than chess\u2014known as the Google DeepMind Challenge Match.<\/span><\/p>\n

Recently, we have moved from the AI of the internet to that of business. And again, from perceptive intelligence to autonomous intelligence thanks to the proliferation of so-called big data, which today are worth more than gold and oil combined.<\/span><\/p>\n

Where will all this take us as AI continues to advance with the creation of new applications? The answers are polarising and oscillate between genuine curiosity and understandable fear. Obviously, it is easy to understand the agnostic nature of AI. Technological innovation promises to improve our lives. But as in every aspect of civil and professional society, it all depends on how it is used.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the criminal organisations’ front, a Generation Z is advancing. There are bosses represented by avatars meeting in the Metaverse to organise drug trafficking and others using drones with facial recognition to strike their enemies. In between, some are beginning to invest in AI startups to understand better how to allocate the money from various illegal activities, and some simulate trafficking routes to avoid the risk of losing the shipments that cross the oceans daily. Drug trafficking has returned to pre-pandemic levels and is poised to reach overproduction quotas never seen before. Alongside cocaine, many synthetic drugs are being produced thanks to chemicals predominantly from China.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today’s mafias are quieter, more immersed in the dark web’s tunnel. Their communications increasingly pass through encrypted channels that are difficult to breach, and their banking transactions occur on trading platforms not always authorised. ‘Ndrangheta and Camorra have demonstrated the ability to mine cryptocurrencies, use them to purchase cocaine, and invest the proceeds in so-called creative and speculative finance.<\/span><\/p>\n

AI is already used by other major criminal networks as a profit multiplier for money laundering activities and for the commercialisation of products and reinvestment of clean money on a large scale. Thanks to AI and the use of cryptocurrencies online, it is much easier to hide illegally obtained wealth, which nevertheless enters the legal economy with impressive ease.<\/span><\/p>\n

Investigations are Also Going Digital<\/b><\/p>\n

This is a world that requires new investigative protocols and new professional skills, as highlighted by a study by the Magna Grecia Foundation presented to the United Nations in April this year. The study noted the growing requests for the seizure and confiscation of wallets containing cryptocurrencies and the increasingly frequent interactions between two worlds that seemed distant: the physical reality of hardened bosses and the virtual reality of hackers and nerds offering their skills to the highest bidder. The blending of these two worlds is now visible to all, and AI, if properly utilised, can greatly assist investigators in facing this new reality that does not allow further delays. In the time of Blitzscaling, or rapid growth, we cannot afford further delays as happened with cryptocurrencies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bio<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n

Nicola Gratteri is the Chief Prosecutor of the Republic at the Naples Court. He led the Catanzaro Prosecutor’s Office and was Deputy Prosecutor in Reggio Calabria. He has investigated international drug trafficking routes and is one of the most prominent magistrates in the fight against mafias.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Antonio Nicaso, a professor of the social history of organised crime at Queen’s University in Canada, is considered one of the world’s leading experts on ‘Ndrangheta. Together, Gratteri and Nicaso have written over twenty books, including “Il Grifone: Come la tecnologia sta cambiando il volto della ‘ndrangheta” (Mondadori).<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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