Organized Crime and the Retail Sector

The retail industry is one of the largest business sectors worldwide. It entails many operational activities, types of products, store formats and selling channels. This complexity exposes retail companies to several criminal threats, many of which perpetrated by organised groups. On the one side, gangs of professional criminals are responsible for large-scale theft and fraud. Despite these crimes are largely considered as petty offences, they often require a high level of organisation and cause serious economic harm to the retailers. On the other side, retail companies are highly attractive and vulnerable to illicit activities perpetrated by large organised crime syndicates, such as extortion or economic infiltrations for money laundering purposes. These activities pose several economic and reputational harms to the retail industry. This chapter reviews the main criminal issues connected to organised criminal activities that threaten the retail sector trying to define a comprehensive classification of these risks. Evidence from different countries worldwide are provided to depict existing and emerging trends. Further, the chapter also reviews potential and actual countermeasures or preventive actions that the retailers can adopt to mitigate these risks.