“The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) keeps coming out with its reports on the evolving crime patterns. In one of its reports, it said that in the past quarter century (namely, since the end of the Cold War), global governance has failed to keep pace with economic globalization. As such, unprecedented openness in trade, finance, travel and communication has created economic growth and well-being, it has also given rise to massive opportunities for criminals to make their business prosper.”

Crime has changed. From local it has become global. Mafias, gangsters, smugglers and terrorists have grown beyond the jurisdictional controls of police. Recent years have shown a rapidly growing graph of crime in Punjab or involving Punjabis worldwide. Gang wars in Canada involving Punjabi youth often hawk media headlines. Early this month when a police outfit came out with “avoid contact” notice, nine of 11 persons mentioned therein were Punjabis. Cases of  crime committed in Punjab  at the instance overseas perpetrators or gangsters (Canada, UK and Australia) have been growing. Most of these cases are closed for lack of jurisdictional controls. Though there are extradition treaties between India and other countries, long and tardy procedures limit their benefits.

Assassination of a Punjabi folk singer Sidhu Moose Wala  got both Interpol and Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)  in active mode. Besides Punjab police, law and order enforcement agencies  of other States, too, get into active mode. Even the central police and intelligence agencies in India and overseas have been involved in tracking down this infamous case. Requisitions from provincial and federal governments for extraditing “wanted criminals” have been on the rise.  Interpol on a requisition from Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) notified Goldy Brar on Red Corner Notice (RCN) in the Sidhu Moose Wala case. Till the end of the last centennial, handling crime was considered a prerogative of the provincial or local administration. In many parts of the world, it still is.

Soon after the Sidhu Moose Wala case, another homicide (murder) of a prominent Sikh leader of British Columbia, Ripudaman Singh Malik, hawked media headlines. Two arrests made in the Malik case gave strong indications of third party involvement. Initial reports said that the victim and the suspects were not even remotely connected. The growing face of crime has become a cause of concern for all governments. Social scientists agree that crime, like all other social parameters, is continuously evolving. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) keeps coming out with its reports on the evolving crime patterns. In one of its reports, it said that in the past quarter century (namely, since the end of the Cold War), global governance has failed to keep pace with economic globalization. As such, unprecedented openness in trade, finance, travel and communication has created economic growth and well-being, it has also given rise to massive opportunities for criminals to make their business prosper.

Organized crime has diversified, gone global and reached macro-economic proportions. The  illicit goods are sourced from one continent, trafficked across another, and marketed in a third. Mafias are today truly a transnational problem: a threat to security, especially in poor and conflict-ridden countries.

Crime is fueling corruption, infiltrating business and politics, and hindering development. And it is undermining governance by empowering those who operate outside the laws. Drug cartels are spreading violence in Central America, the Caribbean and West Africa. The  collusion between insurgents and criminal groups (in Central Africa, the Sahel and Southeast Asia) fuels terrorism and plunders natural resources.

The smuggling of migrants and modern slavery have spread in Eastern Europe as much as South-East Asia and Latin America.  In so many urban centers authorities have lost control to organized gangs. Cybercrime threatens vital infrastructure and state security, steals identities and commits fraud. It was a while when the UNODC  produced its first-ever Transnational Organized Crime Threat Assessment to fill a knowledge gap and pave the way for future world crime reports. Growing global crime patterns have also triggered debates over jurisdictional controls. Drugs, Mafias, Gangsters and Terrorist groups have grown beyond the laws. Operations are carried out on far off territories through social media channels. Going by the investigations in Sidhu Moose Wala case, the crime was executed at the instance of those who were far away from the actual spot of commission. Homicides, extortions, kidnappings and even strikes at innocent people and vulnerable places are carried out on directions given through social media channels. Honor killings are one of the recent additions to the list. A  young girl  who defied her parents to marry a boy of her choice, was done to death by  hired killers. Another grey area of international crime has been human trafficking. It is one of the oldest crimes that extends beyond jurisdictional control of local, provincial or national police organizations. Last month, when Statistics Canada came out with its report, it found that between 2010 and 2020, 2,977 incidents of human trafficking have been reported by police services in Canada; at least three in ten (30%) of which involved an international border crossing. The number of incidents increased over time before declining in 2018, peaking in 2019, and declining once again in 2020. The highest provincial rates of police-reported human trafficking in 2020 were documented in Nova Scotia and Ontario, a finding that has generally remained consistent over time. Police-reported human trafficking in Canada affected women and girls disproportionately, and they represented the vast majority of detected victims. The large majority of accused persons were men and boys, and most victims knew their trafficker. Just under half of all police-reported human trafficking incidents have been cleared either by charge (44%) or by another means (4%). An accused person has not been identified by police in the remaining incidents.

Between 2009 and 2020, there were 1,793 unique persons accused of police-reported human trafficking, including Criminal Code and Immigrant and Refugee Protection Act violations; about eight in ten of whom were male. The large majority (87%) of accused were identified by police in multiple criminal incidents—both related and unrelated to human trafficking. According to a data linkage for 2009 to 2020, most accused had been in contact with police either before (75%) or after (66%) being accused of a human trafficking offence. Among prior contacts, accused were most often implicated in property crimes (67%), offences under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (58%), physical assault-related offences (57%) and the administration of justice offence failure to comply (56%). Following their initial human trafficking contact with police, around one in nine individuals had been accused of human trafficking again during the reference period, the Statistics Canada said. Similar reports suggest how Mafias dealing with human smuggling are operating out of Punjab with their links in Malaysia, Australia, Greece, Italy and other countries. Same is the case with those engaged in money laundering. The list is growing by day while the law enforcement agencies are lagging behind. They say law has a long arm. How long? Only time will tell.

(Prabhjot Singh is a veteran journalist with over three decades of experience covering a wide spectrum of subjects and stories. He has covered  Punjab and Sikh affairs for more than three decades besides covering seven Olympics and several major sporting events and hosting TV shows. For more in-depth analysis please visit probingeye.com  or follow him on Twitter.com/probingeye. He can be reached at prabhjot416@gmail.com)