Book Review: Mafias on the Move: How Organized Crime Conquers New Territories by Federico Varese

By Federico Varese
Princeton University Press; 278 pages; $35

As Los Angeles drug lords return to Latin America and Muscovite extortionists export their knee-busting trade to Italy, organized crime appears to be thriving in the global economy. Yet the tabloid-driven impression of a profitable and relentless mob diaspora can be misleading—at least according to Federico Varese, a professor of criminology at the University of Oxford. His new book, —part , part —provides a nuanced picture of the modern gangster industry, a business that strikes out as often as it succeeds when thugs try to take their act abroad.