These days, news about shootings, organized gangs, and knives in the city of Barcelona are accumulating. I don't know if we are facing a change in trend or simply more media visibility. But they have all reminded me of an economist who received the Nobel Prize for formulating a surprising question: what if part of crime could be analyzed as an economic decision?Gary Becker revolutionized economics by applying his tools to areas that until then seemed reserved for psychology or sociology. He studied discrimination, family, education, and also crime. His approach was as simple as it was provocative: many people who commit crimes make, consciously or intuitively, a calculation between the expected benefits and costs of their future action.This cost depends on three factors. Firstly, on the benefit that the crime provides. Secondly, on the probability of being arrested and convicted. And, thirdly, on the severity of the penalty if punishment is ultimately imposed.Imagine a thief who expects to get a big haul and believes they have very little chance of being caught. Even if the penalties are high, the risk they perceive may continue to pay off for them. On the other hand, if they consider it very likely to end up before a judge, the incentive to commit a crime decreases considerably. From this perspective, police and judicial effectiveness can exert a deterrent effect as important as the toughening of penalties.Naturally, not all crimes respond to a rational calculation. There are impulsive aggressions, mental health problems, emotional violence, or behaviors difficult to explain through economic incentives. Becker never maintained the contrary. His theory refers above all to those crimes in which there is planning, organization, and an expectation of benefit: robberies, bank heists, store assaults…Therefore, when news about criminal gangs or organized crime appears, it is worth remembering this theory. The question is no longer just how many crimes are committed, but also what incentives those who commit them perceive. Do they consider the benefit to be worth the risk? Do they believe the probability of being caught is low? Do they perceive criminal consequences as a real cost?Economics does not replace law or criminology. It offers another way of observing the same phenomenon. And herein lies the value of Becker's contributions. More than half a century later, his theory continues to invite us to ask ourselves these questions because, if part of delinquency responds to incentives, rethinking these incentives can be the first step towards designing more effective policies.

The British historian Mark Galeotti, an analyst specialized in Russian security and transnational crime, has just published a new essay in Spanish, which is also a history of organized crime: Homo criminalis. How Crime Organizes the World (Capitán Swing). A pleasant, rigorous, and also worrying book because it reveals what we often only believe happens in crime novels or screen fiction: crime never rests, it is closer than we suspect, and today's criminals can become tomorrow's legislators.

The hypothesis that the victim of the shooting at 200 Consell de Cent, Barcelona, is linked to organized crime is gaining ground. According to ARA, a weapon and two Croatian passports were found inside the apartment where the man had recently lived. For this reason, and due to the manner in which the man was found, the victim was found in the apartment where he had recently lived. how the murder occurred –shot in the back and in the doorway of the building where he lived–, the Mossos d'Esquadra suspect that the case may be an execution within the scope of organized crime.

Police crackdown on marijuana trafficking. The Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) deployed more than 400 officers at five o'clock this Tuesday morning in two operations against the drug traffickers. Organized crime established in Catalonia and linked to drug trafficking and weapons. The dual operation has reached numerous locations across Catalonia (around twenty different towns) and, according to sources within the force consulted by ARA, 29 arrests have been made. The Civil Guard has also launched an operation against drug trafficking in Barcelona and Girona, with 19 searches and up to 22 arrests. In total, this morning, up to 51 arrests have been made between the two police forces for drug trafficking.

The mining company Poderosa confirmed this weekend that 13 of its workers, who had been kidnapped a week earlier by criminal gangs, were murdered. This Monday, relatives of the 13 deceased miners were finally able to identify the bodies, as protests against the Peruvian government for losing control of the Pataz region in the northwest of the country to organized crime continue to grow. Poderosa itself, for which the R&R company that hired the men worked, confirmed that its kidnapped workers had been "cruelly murdered by criminals allied with illegal mining."

The mining company Poderosa confirmed this weekend that 13 of its workers, who had been kidnapped a week earlier by criminal gangs, were murdered. This Monday, relatives of the 13 deceased miners were finally able to identify the bodies, as protests against the Peruvian government for losing control of the Pataz region in the northwest of the country to organized crime continue to grow. Poderosa itself, for which the R&R company that hired the men worked, confirmed that its kidnapped workers had been "cruelly murdered by criminals allied with illegal mining."

The Dutch journalist Peter R. de Vries has been in a struggle between life-and-death since he was shot five times, including once in the head, on a street in central Amsterdam on Tuesday afternoon. Police are holding two suspects (including the perpetrator of the attack), but have not yet released their identities. In any case, all eyes are on the Mocro Maffia, a group of criminal organizations that base their business on drug trafficking (especially cocaine) and that in recent years had been the target of De Vries' journalistic investigations. These gangs, mainly made up of people of Moroccan origin, have their epicentre in the port of Rotterdam (through which they import the substances that they then distribute in Europe) and operate above all in the Netherlands and Belgium, but their tentacles reach Latin America and also the Costa del Sol, one of the traditional entry points for drugs in Europe.