Transnational Crime News & Analysis
Washington’s New Terrorist Designations Risks Derailing US-Brazil Relations
A US terrorist designation of two major Brazilian organized crime outfits is not a matter of law enforcement - it’s a geopolitical weapon, speak nothing of a compliance nightmare for regional banks, and it will reverberate across US-Brazilian relations for years to come.
Life After Mencho: A Shifting Landscape of Organized Crime in Mexico
The assassination of New Generation Jalisco Cartel (CJNG) leader ‘el Mencho’ is a game-changer, but not necessarily in the way that some analysts were hoping.
Africa: Next Frontline in the Global Drug Trade?
The US war on cartels will not end the global drug economy. At best it will merely shift it, and Africa could become the next frontier.
Russia’s Cyber Sanctuary in Transition: Implications for Global Cybercrime
Russia’s recent cybercrime enforcement activity is best understood not as a conventional law enforcement campaign, but as a geopolitical signal with second-order security effects.
Venezuela: Chronicle of a Regime Change Foretold
Regime change in Venezuela is a game-changing development that will resonate across the geopolitics of the Americas. But it’s not without its risks.
Taliban Poppy Ban Resets South Asian Drug Flows
Once the backbone of Afghanistan’s rural economy and a pillar of the global heroin trade, the opium sector is now in retreat, reshaping drug markets and security dynamics across the wider region.
Setting a Precedent: US War on Drugs Reboots in Latin America
It’s not the volume of Washington’s drug boat strikes that’s most important – it’s the precedent they set for future military action. This forecast examines the diplomatic, economic, and military risk factors inherent to President Trump’s militarized approach to counter-narcotics.
UN Cybercrime Pact Hopes to Curb Rise of Transnational Criminal Networks
State leaders hope that the weekend signing of the United Nations Convention on Cybercrime in Hanoi will mark a step toward reversing the growth of transnational cybercrime networks, many of which operate with impunity just across the Mekong. But as always with global treaties, the devil will be in the details.
Bridging Digital Divides: India’s Cybersecurity Gaps and the Case for US-India Cooperation
For India and the United States, the choice is clear: innovate, cooperate, or fall behind in a rapidly evolving cybersecurity landscape.
Gang Violence Crisis Spreads in Caribbean
Flush with cash from North America’s drug markets, and armed by guns smuggled from the United States, drug trafficking gangs have unleashed a wave of violence in the Caribbean.
Cambodia Emerges as Transnational Crime Hub
Trans-national criminal networks are becoming entrenched in Cambodia, posing new trafficking, fraud, and governance threats throughout the region and even globally.
Escalating Violence in Ecuador: New Front in a Forever War on Drugs?
Now over half a century since the War on Drugs was launched, has the broader campaign against the cartels become a forever war in Ecuador?
Interview: US Drug War and Rise of the Pacific Route
Photographer Jonathan Alpeyrie discusses humanitarian and security risk stemming from a recent surge in drug trafficking along the Pacific route in the Americas.
Bitcoin and Geopolitical Rivalry
Examining the hypothetical potential of Bitcoin as a tool of geoeconomic conflict, and the nascent examples that are already emerging.
How Narco-Geopolitics Hinder US-China Antidrug Cooperation
US-China cooperation on fentanyl precursor chemicals has proven effective in the past; however, it has become a geopolitical casualty as relations sour between Washington and Beijing.
Backgrounder: Evolution of Organized Crime in Mexico
Ad hoc policy responses on either side of the US border are frequently powerless in the face of the geopolitical, economic, and political forces fueling the rise of organized crime in Mexico.
