I feel like you may have a different definition of who a high level criminal is. I would consider anybody who derives significant revenue (say above $1M) from a

I feel like you may have a different definition of who a high level criminal is. I would consider anybody who derives significant revenue (say above $1M) from a criminal activity to count. I'd also question how many highly hierarchical criminal organizations exist today and how many have in the recent past. Media and governments love to overemphasize the organized element for simplicity. Likewise many "terrorist organizations" aren't organized either. In practice you mostly see very lose networks that operate a lot like the rest of the economy. There may be some emergent structure but it's usually not deliberate. > If you where a really high level criminal you wouldn't use a phone at all, you'd pass all your instructions in person to lieutenants who'd pass them on down the chain. > This was largely how the Mob operated for decades and why RICO was created. That would be a legal strategy not a communications security one. It may have been more feasible to proxy away legal responsibility before RICO and such.