Shadow of the Power

Twenty-first-century organized crime no longer fits the traditional image of rigid hierarchies, controlled territories, and visible leaders. Today, sophisticated criminal networks operate across borders, combine legal and illegal activities, exploit emerging technologies, move resources between jurisdictions, and seek influence within economic, social, and institutional structures. In Shadow of Power, Domingo Meran Novas examines the transformation of organized crime through legal, criminological, and victimological perspectives. The book explores transnational criminal networks, globalization, the digital revolution, artificial intelligence, underground economies, money laundering, corruption, political influence, and the risks of infiltration into public institutions, security forces, and military structures. It also examines a dimension that is often overlooked: recruitment mechanisms, invisible victims, and the social deterioration that follows the expansion of criminal power. Rather than focusing only on individual offenses, this book investigates the systems that allow organized crime to survive, adapt, and reproduce. What happens when criminal organizations stop merely challenging the state and begin entering the very structures where decisions are made, resources are allocated, and power is exercised? A comprehensive contemporary examination of one of the most complex challenges facing the rule of law and modern societies.