...cozy ties between politicians and organized crime are hardly a problem exclusive to Spain. Nor are they a new problem: in 1920s Chicago the political class was perfectly at ease hobnobbing at speakeasies with Al Capone and his motley crew of ruthless bootleggers. Indeed, throughout history marriages of convenience have taken place between people and organizations on opposite sides of the legal divide. Lest we forget, in the mid 19th Century, the British Empire became arguably history’s largest ever drug trafficker when it began exporting – at the barrel of a gun – vast quantities of opium grown in India to China.I have always viewed the operations of capitalists and organized crime as coming from the same psychological source in sociopathy. (This latter term has long been competing with the term "psychopathy". The dispute between usages seems to be related to professional territories with more traditional and medically oriented professions clinging to the older usage of psychopathy versus mainly sociologists who have separated out behaviors that are based in faulty socialization versus those behaviors that have mostly an organic basis.) People who have low empathy (For a current article illustrating high empathic individuals, I highly recommend an article by Nozomi Hayase entitled "Chelsea Manning and The Power of Empathy".) or high sociopathy thrive well in a capitalist system, and likewise in a criminal organization. Thus, you will find a high percentage of such people in today's ruling capitalist classes.
You will find a lot of evidence of the blurring of lines between "legitimate" activity and criminal activity as cited in the above quote from this article by Quijones, and there are tons of other sources of information showing the close collaboration of criminal organizations with capitalists and officials in their governments. (See this, this, this, and this for starters.)
