As Birzer and Robertson (2012) state, unlike motorcycle gangs, “the Mafia has an organizational and chain of command capable of supporting global-scale operations” (p. 318). It means that the organizational structure of the Mafia is more complicated and somewhat formal while that of motorcycle gangs is more informal. Furthermore, regarding the business organization, the members of the motorcycle gangs do get involved in the sale of individual dosage of drugs while the Mafia deals in wholesale drug sales (Birzer & Robertson, 2012). The difference in the organizational structures of motorcycle gangs and Mafia might affect the production and distribution of goods by affecting the mode of protection and security offered by the gangs to the producers and distributors of various commodities (Skaperdas, 2008). The reason for this is that since the main function of these organized criminal actors is to sell protection, the differences in their structures is bound to affect the way goods are produced and distributed.
The drug distribution methods that these organizations that are challenging to law enforcement agencies are drug trafficking, use of drug cartels and smuggling of drugs. The reason for this is that these methods make it extremely difficult for the police to track and trace the source and even destination of the illicit drugs.
Some of the existing issues about drug law enforcement include lack of modern enforcement technologies, weak drug policy, and complexity of the structures of the organized criminal groups involved in illegal drug trade and lack of appropriate interventions by the law enforcement. There is also supply and demand market and the political nature of organized crime also affects the effectiveness of the enforcement of drug laws. According to Willis, Anderson, and Homel (2011), to avoid some of these issues that have hindered the effectiveness of drug law enforcement; the police agencies should partner with local communities, and increase the resources by the law enforcement.
References
Abadinsky, H. (2010). Organized crime. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Birzer, M., & Robertson, C. (2012). Introduction to a criminal investigation. Boca Rato, London, & New York: CRC Press.
Kumar, V., & Skaperdas, S. (2008). On the economics of organized crime. Retrieved from www.economics.uci.edu/files/docs/workingpapers/2007-08/skaperdas-15.pdf
Willis, K., Anderson, J., & Homel, P. (2011). Measuring the effectiveness of drug law enforcement. Trends & issues in crime and criminal justice, 406, 401-420
