Reddit mentions of Codes of the Underworld: How Criminals Communicate

If you're interested in learning more about how criminals communicate (including ingenious methods like signaling and screening), check out Diego Gabetta's book

https://www.amazon.com/Codes-Underworld-How-Criminals-Communicate/dp/0691152470

It's a great read. Tiny bit of basic game theory (so you get to learn some game theory too, but in an accessible way), lots of great stories. He's a sociologist, not an economist, but the game theory should be familiar to all economists.

One other theme that's going to be important in issues dealing with an organized group of criminals is trust and reliability (amidst a group which self-selects for untrustworthiness and violence). Diego Gambetta's Codes of the Underworld (http://www.amazon.com/Codes-Underworld-How-Criminals-Communicate/dp/0691152470) is really handy for looking at how organized crime winds up establishing methods by which internal trust can be demonstrated.