In the spring of 1990, twenty men of different nationalities met for the first time in a massive hotel and leisure complex called The City Club on the outskirts of Vienna. The purpose of their meeting? They told hotel management that they were members of an organization called �The Italian Association� and that they were there to discuss how European countries could help South American countries develop their economies in Europe.
It was the birth of 21st century crime, where gangs around the world first showed that they understood the first lesson of globalization --- form joint venture and strategic alliances.
In The Merger, international crime expert and author of The Laundrymen, Jeffrey Robinson, uncovers the intricate network of connections between such infamous organized crime rings as the Sicilian Mafiosi, the Camorra from Naples, the Ndrangheta from Calabria, the Chinese Triads, the Russian, Hungarian, and Czech Republic "maffiyas," and organized crime groups from Columbia, Mexico, Nigeria, and Vietnam--just to name a few. In this meticulously researched book, Robinson pinpoints the factors that led to these global crime cartels - digital communication, world markets, the internet - and reveals how they have changed the face of crime forever.
