As per the State of New Jersey Commission of Investigation (2011), despite legal actions, the integrity of these waste management industries remains a threat. The commission uncovered noteworthy criminal intrusion into solid waste in the late 1960s and observed that the industry remained open to abuse and manipulation by criminal elements that , In politics, a mafia state is a state system where the government is tied with organized crime to the degree when government officials, the police, and/or military became a part of the criminal enterprise. [1][2] According to US diplomats, the expression "mafia state" was coined by Alexander Litvinenko., The waste hauling cartel in New York City is a corruption as old as the industry in which it is embedded., For many years people have been aware of the Mafia’s interests and activities in waste management but their involvement in ecological crimes, as the “Ecomafia,” is less well-known. Ecological crime is a complex, sprawling activity, spanning everything from illicit logging and illegal fishing, to carbon credit fraud and toxic-waste dumping., The “Deep State” Narrative’s Ultraconservative Roots The concept of the “Deep State” has deep historical roots, but Trump adopted the phrase into his lexicon during his first term to describe a group of shadowy elites allegedly orchestrating coordinated opposition to his mandate.[9] This includes opponents in intelligence agencies (especially the FBI), and senior officials in the , This chapter, focused on criminal and corrupt states, is written by Drew Sullivan, co-founder and publisher of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a global network of investigative journalists that exposes crime and corruption so the public can hold power to account. When we refer to “mafia states,” we are talking about a government that […].