Abstract

The study of criminal organisations and illegal supply chains is relevant to understand the dynamics of illegal economy. Indeed, the definition of a behavioural and relational model of criminal organisations would permit to improve the efficiency of control policies. Furthermore, it would permit to improve the capability to measure the phenomenon when some illegal activities have to be included in the determination of the Gross Domestic Product. In this work, using the instruments of the knowledge-based approach to the firm, we develop a model to analyse and classify criminal organisations and the relationships they build up along the supply chain of illegal activities. This theoretical scheme is finally applied to the illicit drug supply-chain.