Sterling, Claire. Thieves' World: The Threat of the New Global Network of Organized Crime. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994. 304 pages.

Claire Sterling, a grandmother who lives in Tuscany and has been based in Italy for over 30 years, is a serious investigative reporter. Many feel that she was taken for a ride by Western disinformation sources in "The Terror Network" (1981), which blamed international terrorism and other evils on the KGB. But it didn't hurt her career: CIA director William Casey became an instant fan and the book was published in 22 countries.

"Thieves' World" is as timely today as "The Terror Network" was in 1981. It's disturbing that it took a mere thirteen years for Sterling to recast the face of evil from the KGB to organized crime, but despite the alarmist tone, this book appears to be solid. It's about four major international problems -- the Russians, the Chinese Triads, the Japanese Yakuza, and Colombia's cocaine cartels. Sterling contends that they cooperate with each other and are getting sophisticated with laundering and reinvestments, while many banks and financial markets are looking the other way. Most governments, meanwhile, are powerless: central authority has collapsed in the eastern bloc, and in the west, the European Community can't agree on how to pool their resources, or even on standardizing laws concerning surveillance, search and seizure, confiscation, and laundering. Considering the difficulty of investigating this topic, Sterling does a credible job of reporting.
ISBN 0-671-74997-8

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