But a report by Stakeholder Democracy Network (SDN) in Port Harcourt, based on interviews with the operators of nine illegal refineries in three delta states, gives an idea of the vicious circle of pollution and self-destruction that now determines life in the communities, and why the refineries are sanctioned in the full knowledge that they will pollute and destroy livelihoods.
The director of the BPI's Copyright Protection Unit, David Wood, said: "Today's sentencing sends a clear message to the operators and users of illegal music sites that online piracy is a criminal activity that will not be tolerated by law enforcement in the UK or overseas.
"It's an economic crisis just like the United States has had; just like it," said Wang Ting, an operator of an illegal casino in Fugu, near Shenmu.
ALBANY — As Caroline Kennedy embarked on a tour of upstate New York this week, camera crews and reporters in tow, the state's attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo, was announcing a $2.7 million settlement with the operator of an illegal dump in Lackawanna.
The big operators, the manufacturers and distributors of illegal drugs, don't need government benefits.
The next generation of illegal marketplace operators will be much harder for the FBI or other law enforcement agencies to catch, according to a Bangkok-based security expert and broker of security exploits known as the Grugq.
Mr. Skene tied the confusion to the scoreboard operators who were "two local boys who may have been there because of illegal mathematical operations on the outside".
Investigators also said they were pursuing charges against the owners and operators of the market for employing illegal immigrants and other violations of labor and health laws.
Goetz Wolff, research director for the County Federation of Labor, cited overseas competition, fragmentation and the ready supply of illegal workers available to less scrupulous operators.
