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In this paper, researchers try to understand and interpret why and how dark networks manage to survive despite massive control efforts by nation states, thus demonstrating a high degree of resilience. They approach this question from an organizational perspective looking at the changes dark networks undergo in adapting to attempts to destroy them. They draw on insights based on the analysis of how Al Qaeda changed after the massive control efforts by some of the world's most powerful nation states since their attacks on the US on Sep 11, 2001. In order to develop more general propositions, the contrast the Al Qaeda case with the development of the organizational structure behind the cocaine trade from Colombia to the US after if had become the object of massive control efforts by the US during the 1990s. The analysis shows that control efforts that are directed towards the organizational extinction of dark …