Introduction

State involvement in illegal schemes is always seen as different, or even entirely disconnected, from the state's constant attempts to establish a law-based social order. The broadly accepted premise is that the state establishes order in society through lawful means; that is, through formal institutional frameworks, rules, and procedures. If, then, observable regularities in behavior and expectations are the outcome of such lawful means, law-breaking behaviors on the part of state authorities only serve to distort and subvert this social order. Under these assumptions, the flip-side of the state, commonly referred to as the ‘submerged state', ‘narco-state', ‘criminalized state', ‘parallel state', ...