The Merger: How Organized Crime Is Taking Over the World

If you really want to know about the various different gangs, what their business is in, how they operate and where, then you will want this book. The author goes into details of operations used to capture, and at times not capture various transnational organized gangs. On the flip side he also describes how the gangs operate to circumvent the law, including names of major players and which cities they are located in. Ironically when I finished reading one of the chapters on Russian Maffiya there was an article in the newpaper concerning a front company that I had read about in the book. The book covered a lot of information to the extent that when I read the article I was thinking that there was a lot missing that they either don't know about or don't want to print. Check out YBM Magnetics, read this book and find out what they don't tell you.

The author from the best selling Laundrymen comes back with another great book detailing the organized crime syndicates growth and globalization. The facts presented draws a very frightening picture of the skills and powers of the different mafias and how much they have accomplished, and also takes a look at their bold new plans for the future. Ranging from Italian, Russian, Columbian, Mexican to Asian organizations, the book shows how they have managed to outrun the police due to operating truly global utilizing each others skills to operate at maximum profitability and minimizing risk and exposure (that would make any legal company proud). The book reads like a novel, and is full of fascinating, menacing and colorful characters that you rather only read about than meet. Although, this is key knowledge to understand the world we live in and what goes on around us in these changing times -- it's not all pretty. This is a must read for anybody interested in global crime and the different cultural aspects of the development of society.

Bought it on a whim while finishing shopping Christmas Eve. Started it Christmas Day and finished it the next night. A great read, flows nicely. It reads like something from a Tom Clancy novel but scarier.

I found "The Merger" to be an outstanding book, easy to read and filled with unforgettable characters. In fact, it reads like a novel. What's more, the author offers some serious suggestions about how to diminish the influence of international organized crime. I never realized just how dangerous the world had become, and how dangerous the future will be, unless we do something soon. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to know the truth behind the headlines!

I loved The Laundrymen and couldn't wait to see this. But whereas The Laundrymen worried me, this is truly frightening. Robinson isn't talking about some monolithic international crime syndicate, the picture he paints is of ruthless, professional opportunists who understand that big business today must think global. And these opportunists run very big businesses. The Merger is the single best book I've ever read on transnational organized crime, and should serve as a warning to all of us that the war on crime is, like the business of crime, global. Until governments equip law enforcement to fight this war properly, globally, it is a war we will lose.