Abstract
Since the end of the 1990s, the police in the Netherlands has regularly reported on the criminal activities of Lithuanian itinerant groups as part of the mobile banditry phenomenon. According to the reports, these groups commit crimes against property, they are highly professional and well-organized. In particular, they are involved in vehicle, shop, and cargo theft and burglaries. The present article is based on the research conducted in 2013 and aims to provide explanations and analyses of the historical, socio-economic, and political backgrounds of the ‘itinerant criminal gangs’ phenomenon. The focus is on the gangs from Lithuania. The analysis is done from different perspectives: lessons from the past (historical analysis of banditry); the rise of organized crime as a consequence of the collapse of the socialist economy (economic analysis of new markets and clients); the context of globalization, and particularly enlargement of the European Union, the irresistible attraction of the West and the gap between the wealthy West (the Netherlands) and the poor East (Lithuania) (cultural criminological analysis of the push and pull factors). The precise and detailed description of the modus operandi, structure, leadership, and targets of the Lithuanian groups are illustrated by various quotes of the ‘intern’ respondents, from police and justice experts in specific areas in Lithuania and the Netherlands to Lithuanian detainees in Dutch prisons. Where are the stolen goods, are they brought back to the Lithuanian market, or further on to the former Soviet republic, or perhaps they are sold to the local Dutch merchants in the local settings? How the contacts between Lithuanian and Dutch (or Afghan, Russian, etc.) criminals are created? These questions are answered on the basis of numerous interviews, observations and comparative literature analysis. The last part of the article focuses on the questions how to tackle and combat this relatively new form of organized crime and what are the responsibilities of different institutions and organizations in this context (in the EU, in the Netherlands, and in Lithuania).
Highlights
During the years of the Cold War, the ‘Russian threat’ used to mean the threat of a Soviet invasion and occupation of Western Europe
The term has acquired a new meaning since the opening of the Soviet borders: it became the threat of the ‘Russian Mafia’
Outside the former Soviet Union, it was usually believed that in the Soviet period the Russian organized crime would be contained by the Iron Curtain
Summary
During the years of the Cold War, the ‘Russian threat’ used to mean the threat of a Soviet invasion and occupation of Western Europe. According to the representative of the Public Prosecutor Office, “this law provided 60 days to collect “kompromat”(incriminating evidence), which led to the arrest of 1384 members of criminal organizations between 1993 and 1997 This dealt a significant blow to organised crime, including the leaders of the Kaunas mafia such as Daktaras” (Siegel, 2014: 43). The Dashkiniai maintained relationships with the Shkilevskie gang in Kaliningrad, which committed murders for them in Lithuania, while Lithuanians returned the favor (an exchange of services) in Kaliningrad (Siegel, 2014: 43) These young criminals, who operated throughout the entire country and later moved to Germany, specialized in car theft and peregon (transport) from West Europe via Lithuania to Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan (ibid.). The Dutch criminologist Frank Bovenkerk analysed different links when organized crime follows the ‘normal’ patterns of migration and is embedded in migrant community (Bovenkerk, 2001). Every Diaspora country plays its own role for criminal organizations, which develop different ‘specializations’ in each country where the Lithuanian criminal groups have operated since the beginning of the emigration at the end of 1980s
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