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1. Why do professional criminals make contributions to political campaigns?
In many countries, organized crime exists on such a large scale that it affects and damages the integrity of the democratic process. The political corruption which regularly accompanies organized crime is a disease which is easy enough to diagnose but extremely hard to cure. There are, therefore, no simple, optimistic lessons to be drawn from the experiences of foreign countries. Nevertheless, it is useful to review the range of methods, which have been attempted.
Probably most infamous among organized criminals are the Mafia. Associated primarily with Sicily in Southern Italy, the Mafia have also established colonies in other countries, especially in some of the major urban communities of the United States. Apart from the Mafia, criminal syndicates from other parts of Southern Italy are known as Cosa Nostra and Camorra. Other examples are the Yakuza in Japan, the Triads of Hong Kong, and the Medellin Cartel, which makes money from illegal trafficking in narcotics based in Medellin, Colombia And the Call Cartel, based in the city of Call, also in Colombia. Apart from such large-scale, widespread bodies, there are also groups, which are run as smaller criminal businesses in isolated areas of a country.
Two initial questions are:
 Why is organized crime so regularly associated with the corruption of public officials and politicians ?
What are the connections between organized crime and payments to political campaigns ?
Contributions to political campaigns are one important method whereby wealthy criminals obtain influence over elected officials. These officials are then obliged to use their powers to protect the criminals from the police and from other law enforcement agencies.
The activities associated with organized crime are generally obvious to the public and are well known to the police. If narcotics are being sold on a large scale, if there is illegal gambling or prostitution, these activities need to be well advertised: the clients must know where they can obtain the illegal services on offer. It is for this reason that the bosses of crime syndicates have the motive to corrupt members of the police and even of the judiciary.
These are some of the most common forms of organized crime:
Protection rackets. Owners of restaurants, market stalls, shops and night clubs and other businesses receive warnings from a criminal gang that their premises and their customers will be physically attacked and their businesses will risk being ruined unless they pay a regular sum of money to the gang, supposedly for 'protection' against such attacks.
According to a recent estimate, 90 percent of shopkeepers in Sicily are still obliged to pay protection money to members of the Mafia.
Drug trafficking.
Loan sharking. Providing short-term financial loans at extortionate rates of interest; enforcing repayment by violence and threats of violence.
Illegal gambling, illegal prostitution, illegal pornography, illegal manufacture and sale of alcohol.
Labor racketeering. Criminal gangs take charge of a trade union and use force and the threat of force to control a group of workers. The criminals in control of corrupt labor unions may receive bribes from business owners for their services or else they may choose which casual workers (for example, dockers) will obtain employment in exchange for bribes from the workers.
Smuggling, counterfeiting of money.
The profits from these activities may then be ploughed into legal business ventures or investments.
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