Many of the international crimes that extend over foreign borders and into the United States include: drug trafficking, extortion, money laundering, arms smuggling, bribery, and fraud schemes. No area of the world seems immune to this menace, especially not the United States. America is the land of opportunity for unloading criminal goods and laundering dirty money.
In recent years, these criminal groups have dramatically increased the scope of their activities by taking advantage of the lowering of economic and political barriers, the end of communist regimes, and the increase in illegitimate international trade, as well as, the advances in technology that assist in international transportation of illegal goods. Two such organized crime groups that fit these criteria and can be used to give a comparative analysis, are the Russian mafia and Asian triads.
Russian organized crime, or the so-called "Russian Mafia," has come to plague many areas of the globe since the fall of the Soviet Union, just more than a decade ago. The transnational nature of Russian organized crime, when coupled with its high degree of complexity and ruthlessness, has attracted the world's attention and concern to what has become known as a global Russian Mafia. Along with this concern, however, has come a fair amount of misunderstanding and stereotyping with respect to Russian organized crime. They are fearless and intelligent, which are the perfect type of characteristics for being successful in organized crime; this perspective is definitely shared by both organized crime groups. The Asian triads are a fairly recent organized crime group that is growing fast; they have a discreet, underground organization that is based out of Hong Kong. “The triads are primarily ethnically based and use rituals, oaths, secret ceremonies and incentives to secure personal loyalty. Family affiliation is important within the triads and individual membership provides credibility and influence.”(Arvantides, 1). Unlike the triads, though, and many other well-known organized crime groups, the Russian Mafia was not primarily based on ethnic or family structure. Since organized crime is made up of criminals who work together to carry out illegal acts, a degree of trust is necessary among those criminals. A shared ethnicity, with a common language, background, or culture, has traditionally been a basis for trust among organized crime. In the Russian Mafia though, they adopted behaviors, rules, and sanctions that bound them together in what was called the thieves' world, led by the elite "vory v zakone," which were criminals who lived according to the "thieves' law." This thieves' world created the bonds and trust necessary for carrying out organized crime. Many cultures that shared a common ethnicity or language similar to them and that were also on the bottom of the food-chain, have turned to crime- specifically organized crime, to get ahead. I feel that both of these organized crime groups possess this characteristic, as well as, probably most every other group, in some way.
The criminal conduct engaged in by Asian organized crime groups, like the triads, include the traditional activities normally associated with organized crime, such as: extortion, murder, kidnapping, illegal gambling, prostitution, and loan sharking; but also, international organized crime problems like: alien smuggling, heroin and methamphetamine drug trafficking, financial frauds, theft of automobiles, counterfeiting of computer and clothing products, and money laundering, too. The Asian triads operate widespread networks of national and international criminal associates that are very fluid and extremely mobile. They adapt easily to the changes around them and have multilingual abilities; they can be highly sophisticated in their criminal operations and have extensive financial means. The triads have commercialized their criminal activities and can be viewed as business firms of various sizes; from small family-run operations to large corporations…depending upon each group's level in the criminal business in which they specialize. The Russian Mafia is comparably similar to this concept of hiding underneath a legitimate front, but they are a more loose-style organization, than the triads.
In addition to the above mentioned organized crime traits, both groups share the traditional characteristics that are common to the many other forms of organized crime
elsewhere in the world, such as: systematic use of violence, including both the threat and the use of force; hierarchical structure; limited or exclusive membership; specialization in types of crime and a division of labor. “In short, one major cultural difference is in the organizational models of an Anglo-European, linked, hierarchical military chain of command vs. a Chinese networking, opportunistic, shifting affiliation…” (Daye 16).
The threat itself is growing at such a fast rate, that it is important to look at possible ways in which the national response to global organized crime can be improved. International crime crosses the line between "domestic" and "foreign" relationships, because the criminals have such a worldwide impact; they are based in foreign countries, but have global ties, including many in the United States. These threats present new conflicts that will require innovative strategies in the future. The portions of the society that one would normally expect to be against organized crime--public organizations, political movements, and the population at large- instead support it; because of all the corruption and incompetence of the government. Ironically, organized crime provides stability and fuels the economic engine. Both organized crime groups contain many similarities and are a growing threat to the United States, in many ways. This so-called benefit, however, comes at a steep price, in the long run.

References
Daye, D. D. (1997). A Law Enforcement Sourcebook of Asian Crime and Cultures: Tactics and Mindsets. Boca Raton, FL: Robert B. Stern.
http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=asian=triads&hl=en&lr=&start=10&sa=N. Retrieved October 29, 2005.
Arvantides, C., & Butcher, J. (n.d.). Global Organized Crime: The Asian Triads. Retrieved October 14, 2005, from http://www.american.edu/projects/mandela/TED/hpages/crime/Asian.htm.

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