Proxy targeting and multiplex resilience for organized crime network disruption in corporate interlock and communications networks

Abstract Understanding the structure and resilience of organized crime groups like mafias is critical for designing strategies to disrupt their operations. This paper proposes a new protocol– proxy targeting– for network disruption analyses. By separating the targeting of nodes and their removal from the network of interest, this approach allows researchers to consider multiple dimensions in a multiplex network simultaneously, as well as the sort of information available to law enforcement in the early stages of an investigation rather than complete knowledge of the network. Multiplex network data is collected from a pre-trial detention notice and the Italian business register on an `Ndrangheta group as its members and associates sought to infiltrate legitimate businesses. Using the newly-developed proxy targeting approach, results suggest that open-source business registers can be an effective, low-cost, and easy-to-access network data source for targeting surveillance and disruption of corporate interlock dimensions that represent which actors are affiliated to the same company together; however, these data are less successful for targeting disruption of the communication dimension between actors. Further, findings suggest that multiplexity can reinforce a network’s resilience against disruption by providing fallback connectivity in the event that one dimension is destabilized. The proxy targeting protocol proposed here creates opportunities to answer new questions and to better understand how criminal networks are structured and how they can be disrupted.