How and where do criminals operate? Using Google to track Mexican drug trafficking organizations

Abstract

We develop a tool that uses Web content to obtain quantitative information about the mobility and modus operandi of criminal groups, data that would otherwise require the operation of large scale, expensive intelligence exercises to be obtained. Exploiting indexed reliable sources such as online newspapers and blogs, we use unambiguous query terms and Google's search engine to identify the areas of operation of criminal organizations, and to extract information about the particularities of their mobility patters. We apply our tool to Mexican drug trafficking organizations and identifying their market strategies, their preferred areas of operation, and the way in which these have evolved over the last two decades. By extracting this knowledge, we provide crucial information for academics and policy makers increasingly interested in organized crime and its implications for national security. Our findings provide evidence that criminal organizations are more strategic and operate in more differentiated ways than current academic literature had thought.