Time and again, writers and movie makers have sought, with a measure of success, to paint captivating pictures of great crooks and their struggles in life – as, perhaps, exemplified by the Corleone family saga written by Mario Puzo and set to the silver screen under Francis Ford Coppola. Oh the drama and the dreams turned upside down...
In the typical things criminal, difficult to detect the depth and meaning added by brushes of masters of the arts: a guy steals cars; another guy – a bit smarter – makes a bunch of others steal cars. Drug money collected in filthy holes moves up various levels. To solve disputes that occur, courts cannot be approached – hence paid murders and settlings of accounts among the gangs.
Still, there’s a silver lining in the fact that crime money is attempted to be laundered. And that this is being successfully hindered. With a need to legalise criminal gain, there must be the reasons to it. The society isn’t criminal to the core; most of the economy opts for the path transparent. And: the transparency is attractive to the very crooks themselves. Tax Board, police and others have succeeded in enforcing themselves to the degree that it’s uncomfortable to manage mere heaps of cash; and, at certain levels, outright impossible. We do know, don’t we? that 20, 15 and ten years back it wasn’t that difficult in Estonia.
For drug and theft money not to reach legal business is vital for small and medium enterprises to make it. For: how does one compete, in payments of rent and salaries, with a restaurant or souvenir shop which actually exists to launder criminal money?
If not stopped at this level, the dirty money with the (business) culture of its owners keeps climbing higher up, of course – to major corporations and politics. With criminal gain hard to legalise, it makes less sense to be a mafioso. And, as supported by human experience so far, streets then become a safer place.