Organised crime in Ireland

AARRRGH

I've been reading a few books about organised crime in Ireland (books by Paul Williams - Evil Empire, Crimelords, etc.)

What amazes me is the fact that these guys never went to school (so I would assume they haven't developed the usual skills a normal person would have) yet somehow they build up all these international gun running and drug trading links.

It just makes no sense to me.

How does a dumb bloke from Crumlin -

A. Find out who the international gun runners and drug lords are
B. Approach them
C. Not get killed in the process???

It's bizarre.

What is also weird is the fact that these guys seem to get away with it no problem. The guards know what they're doing, but they rarely do anything about it. And it seems if they do get hauled in by the police all they have to do is keep their mouth shut and threaten to kill any witnesses.

I find it fascinating, if slightly strange.

Anyone else interested in this kind of stuff??

ballooba

Since when did education = intelligence ?

AARRRGH

ballooba wrote:

Since when did education = intelligence ?

All the years of problem solving (History questions/English questions/Algebra/etc.) help make your brain think properly. English lessons help you read and write. Etc etc.

stevenmu

Yes but while everyone else was in school they were out learning how to do what they do.

MrJoeSoap

dublindude wrote:

How does a dumb bloke from Crumlin -

A. Find out who the international gun runners and drug lords are
B. Approach them
C. Not get killed in the process???

Haha, laughed quite a bit at that. I read Evil Empire a few years back and thought along the same lines (oh God I really didn't mean that pun).

Dub13

I would say the guys in Paul Williams books are not the real "crime lords",they would just be the heaves/grunts.Anytime a major drug operation gets busted,and I am not talking about a truck being stopped on the long mile road.Big international stuff such as consignments from south america and morocio,on the rare occasions that the police get the the top of these gangs its never working class people behind them.

aidan_dunne

"Street smarts", "school of life", "school of hard knocks", etc., etc. Stuff you'd just pick up over the years, so to speak, from hanging around and being immersed in that kind of way of life. Having the ability to read a situation or a person well and use that to your advantage. And having the basic cop-on to keep your head down when the going gets tough. I would say all those things are your answer right there. Let's face it, you don't need to be a genius to have a bit of common sense now, do you? And I'd say these guys have it in spades. What often seems to be these guys' letdown, though, is that they can get complacent and let greed and power overcome their common sense. Sometimes then they end up where they can't see the wood from the trees and it ends up becoming their downfall. It's the guys who don't let that happen, who make sure they keep their desire for money and power in check, and keep their heads and their common sense who tend to end up doing well from criminality than those who let it all go to their heads.

Plus, what a lot of people seem to underestimate is that, despite their lack of education, these guys often are very intelligent behind it all, and would probably score quite highly in IQ tests or whatever. And many take to studying things like criminal law very, very intensely later on in their criminal "careers" so they know the justice and law systems inside-out so they know exactly how to exploit it to their advantage if they need to. Some of these guys would, ironically, probably make pretty good lawyers, solicitors and even barristers if they had ever so chosen to do so because they know the criminal justice systems so well.

[Jackass]

Why mention crumlin? I dont know any lords to come out of there..could be wrong...

Anyway, The biggest crime bosses, drug runners, weapon dealers are mostly in south america, used to be in north america (Italian Mafia), Russian mafia around eastern europe, and africa..The problem is these guys are a militia who have a mini army...the weapond the IRA gave up was nearly enough to give evey person in this country a gun...The ira are pe0ns compared to what's out there...in some countries the gun runners/drug dealers etc. are the police, they are customs, they are the government...so it's pretty easy to find them...they dont give a crap because there's nothing you can do, so as long as you have money, you can send a contact to meet them directly, they openly encourage it...more clients = more money.

It's a myth that these guys will kill you if you try to find them...they want to be found, and they want you to keep coming back to buy more...if anything (as long as your legit, buying etc.) they'd probably treat you like a king.

Siogfinsceal

okay see there is 2 kinds of smart - school smart and street smart. school smart means you know a lot of general knowledge, you can add, write etc etc but how much of this is useful info? how will knowing what x and y equal get you out of a drugs raid? street smart teaches you survival etc.
personally I learned ore valuable stuff outside of school than I ever did in it. i got stupider the longer i spent in school