THE NEURAL ARCHITECTURE OF ORGANISED CRIME NETWORKS INVOLVED IN DRUG TRAFFICKING
THE NEURAL ARCHITECTURE OF ORGANISED CRIME NETWORKS INVOLVED IN DRUG TRAFFICKING

Summary/Abstract: The phenomenon of organized crime constitutes an increasing threat to regional security in Europe, where criminal networks demonstrate a persistent capacity to overcome the efforts of authorities to counter its proliferation. The most profitable form of organised crime is cocaine trafficking from South America to European markets.The dynamism and fluidity of the criminal entities that orchestrate cocaine trafficking reflect their flexibility even in terms of how they are structured. Considering the need to understand the complexity and multidimensionality of cocaine trafficking, a neural network model will be proposed that encompasses the main characteristics of the criminal networks involved in this form of crime. The purpose of this research is to identify a new conceptual model for the structure of organised crime groups. This research aims to generate knowledge about operational reality of criminal groups by drawing an analogy between their structure and a neural network. The data analysed in this article were derived from reports issued by European and international authorities with institutional mandates in the field of monitoring, preventing and combating international cocaine trafficking, covering the period from 2021-2026,including news publications and academic literature in the field of sociology and neuroscience. The research finds that the neural network conceptual model integrates the main characteristics associated with organised crime networks into a unified framework: fluidity, decentralisation, (re)configurability and organisational flexibility.

• Details
• Contents