CRIMINALS AND SERVICE PROVIDERS - CROSS-NATIONAL DIRTY ECONOMIES

This article examines the recent evolution of transnational crime. By focusing on two specific criminal activities, namely the trafficking i n human beings and the illicit trafficking in arms, it tries to establ ish the relationship between conventional criminal organisations and t he official economy. It concludes by observing that the illegal servic es provided by conventional criminals to official economic actors are made increasingly redundant, because the latter tend to set up their o wn illegal practices which service their activity.