Authors: Luis Jorge-Garay, Eduardo Salcedo-Albaran & Isaac de León-Beltrán

Sofia, Bulgaria, 29.05.10.

People have often thought that as a rule, criminal gangs confront the State. However, research carried out during recent years shows that the history of the relationship between the State and organized crime is not always one of confrontation. Indeed, in some cases the latter has been able to infiltrate and to co-opt some State institutions in order to achieve its unlawful objectives. On the other hand, government officials and politicians, in many cases, get along well with organized crime, taking advantage of its criminal power in order to obtain egoistic, exclusive and morally unlawful benefits to the detriment of public interests. The social situations analyzed in this book go beyond the classic stories of bribed policemen, infiltrated gangs, or egoistic government officials. This book analyzes cases in which the State has been infiltrated and manipulated, sometimes resulting from alliances between the organized crime and lawful officials and organizations. These alliances can be observed even at high decision-making levels, affecting the structure and operation of institutions.

The objective of the book is to go into the conceptual, methodological, and empirical issues of the State Capture (StC) and Co-opted State Reconfiguration (CStR). To fulfill this objective, a conceptual and empirical analysis of specific cases of organized crime in Colombia and Mexico is developed.