Mark Galeotti warns that good intentions can fuel techno-authoritarian crime networks

Mark Galeotti, an honorary professor at UCL and former director of the European Security Centre, explores the deep ties between organized crime and state formation in a recent interview. Drawing on historical examples from ancient Rome to Renaissance Italy and the Netherlands, he shows how criminal networks have always shadowed emerging political and economic systems. Today, he estimates the global illicit market at roughly $2 trillion, with drug trafficking accounting for 40-60 % of that sum, while noting the diversification of criminal enterprises into money-laundering, cybercrime and high-tech smuggling.

Galeotti warns that law-enforcement struggles to keep pace with rapid technological change, and that societies risk embracing pervasive surveillance—exemplified by practices in Russia and post-9/11 United States—that could evolve into techno-authoritarian regimes. He stresses that the gap between state authority and civil society creates fertile ground for organized crime, and that the allure of cheap goods and convenience often blinds the public to the environmental and social harms financed by illicit activities.