Shadowy Deals with “Sunny Stone”: Organized Crime, Informal Mining, and the Illicit Trade of Amber in Ukraine

Abstract

While prior research on informality has studied the institutions and actors in informal economies as well as their clandestine relations, little is known about the role of organized crime in informal economies, particularly as it pertains to how criminal entrepreneurs interact with the primary participants of the informal economy-informal entrepreneurs. Using a qualitative exploratory approach, the chapter examines why and how organized crime groups (OCGs) infiltrate informal economies, and it scrutinizes the relationships they build with informal workers and traders. In our investigation, we focus on the illegal extraction of amber in Ukraine, smuggling of raw amber across the Ukraine-Poland border, and the difficulties of formalizing informal mining. It is argued that in addition to the obvious economic losses to the state and environmental harms caused by informal amber mining, there is a general worsening of criminogenic conditions characterized by organized violence and corruption. Our findings contribute to the literature on illegitimate governance, criminal logistics, and the formalization of informal entrepreneurship.