Økonomisk Kriminalitet Nordiske Perspektiver - Scandinavian ...

go back home to corrupt customs - officers, policemen, fences, businessmen and
customers, in their respective homelands. The contraband alcohol, the stolen
goods and the marihuana have been distributed by teams linked to different
regional and international networks. Illegitimate goods, stolen goods, criminal
specialists and gardeners have crossed the borders. The “brokers” have worked
locally and regionally. None have been just local.
The market perspective:
The demand for illegitimate alcohol is triggered by high taxation, restricted
availability, rationing and strikes in certain periods - and few moral barriers for
buying illegitimate goods. Illegal alcohol has traditionally been “the crime without
victims”. Other criminals have been seen as much worse. The 96 % alcohol, which
was much in demand in the 1990s and imported in industrial quantities, lost
indeed its nimbus and attractiveness after being mixed with methanol in 2002, but
not illegitimate alcohol as such. Hashish and marihuana have always been
forbidden in Norway, but the demand has been increasing. It is still a small
market, but promising. The smokers are more spread across class and culture than
in the founding days of the hippies. Even bikers enjoy a joint. The demand for
stolen goods in Eastern Europe seems endless. Norway is a rich country, open and
with a high degree of trust. “Big Brother” in police uniform is not that big. The
prisons are nice places to stay for a while, relatively speaking. The illegitimate
markets are served by professionals, part timers, seasonal workers, amateurs,
persons who are in charge, men who work for themselves, partners who work in
teams, and underpaid day workers who work for someone else. Division of labour
and class differences are as typical for illegitimate business as the legitimate.
(Ruggierio 1996.) Who are the organized criminals, then? Who cares as long as
they contribute, and the market works.
The historical perspective:
Adjustable illegitimate alcohol markets, all the way back to the Prohibition, make
up an important chapter in Norwegian crime history. The police and the customs
have won some fights, but not the war. Traditions, legends, subculture, networks
and veterans may be self-fulfilling, but the tradition for illegitimate alcohol in
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