Empire of Crime

When Great Britain took the moral high ground and banned its lucrative export of opium from Imperial India to China, it unleashed a century of criminality. Where America's misguided Prohibition of alcohol made illicit fortunes for the Mafia, across the pond the organized criminals within the British Empire grew rich on their trade in illegal narcotics in the 20th century. Empire of Crime is the first book to reveal the full extent and variety of organized crime within the British Empire in the 20th century. By delving into British colonial archives, Newark has discovered breathtaking truths about organized crime inside the British Empire. This book unravels how gangsters exploited its global trade routes to establish a new age of criminal networks that spanned the world.