Research Papers

A Shift from Crime to Terrorism: Assessing D-Company

AJEY V LELE
DECEMBER 2005

The modern era has witnessed enormous growth in transnational organized crime. Over the years such crime groups have covertly provided arms and ammunition to terrorist groups purely for business interests. However, the difference between organized crime and terrorism has blurred in the last few years. Few crime organizations have shown a tendency of involving themselves in terrorist activities for non-profit reasons. This paper offers an analysis of the causes behind the changing philosophy and practices of one of the well-known crime organizations from India to move closer towards terrorism to support its criminal activities. The discussion is based on a specific case study carried out with the help of a ‘Model of criminal-terrorist relations’.

Author Note
AJEY V LELE, Research Fellow, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi
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