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Peru, FBI Strengthen Specialized Team to Target Transnational Criminal NetworksSecurity & Cooperation

Peru, FBI Strengthen Specialized Team to Target Transnational Criminal Networks

Peru and the United States are strengthening cooperation against transnational organized crime through a specialized Peruvian National Police (PNP) team that works with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to identify and dismantle criminal networks operating across borders. The Sensitive Special Team against Transnational Organized Crime (EESCCOT) brings together vetted personnel, controlled access to sensitive information, and international cooperation to…

October 23, 2026
SOUTHCOM Commander Visits Peru, Strengthens Cooperation to Combat NarcoterroristsSecurity & Cooperation

SOUTHCOM Commander Visits Peru, Strengthens Cooperation to Combat Narcoterrorists

U.S. Marine Corps General Francis L. Donovan, commander of U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) visited Peru, October 13-15 to advance joint efforts to combat narcoterrorism and hemispheric threat networks (HTNs) in support of the Americas Counter-Cartel Coalition (ACCC) and strengthen the U.S.-Peru security partnership. This was Gen. Donovan’s first visit to Peru as SOUTHCOM commander. During the visit, Gen. Donovan joined…

October 22, 2026
Peru Tightens Prison Security to Break Criminal Command from Behind BarsTransnational Crime

Peru Tightens Prison Security to Break Criminal Command from Behind Bars

Peru is expanding its strategy to prevent criminal organizations from continuing to operate from prisons, where they coordinate extortion, contract killings, drug trafficking, and other illicit activities carried out beyond prison walls. Measures adopted and announced throughout 2026 combine prison reform, Armed Forces participation in perimeter security, control technologies, and cooperation with the United States to strengthen state control over…

October 22, 2026
Ecuador Follows the Money to Strike at Organized Crime NetworksTransnational Crime

Ecuador Follows the Money to Strike at Organized Crime Networks

Ecuador is intensifying efforts to trace transfers, companies, properties, and other assets linked to suspected criminal networks. Cases investigated in 2026 point to a strategy that seeks to go beyond arrests: reconstruct the flow of money, identify the business networks that move it, and target the assets that sustain illicit operations. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) considers asset recovery…

October 20, 2026
Honduras Leads Maritime Counterdrug Effort During Operation BarracudaTransnational Crime

Honduras Leads Maritime Counterdrug Effort During Operation Barracuda

Honduran security forces, working in close coordination with regional and U.S. partners, seized 2,560 kilograms of suspected cocaine and detained nine suspected smugglers during Operation Barracuda, a multinational maritime counterdrug operation conducted September 6–21, 2026. The operation underscored Honduras’s leadership in combating transnational criminal organizations and demonstrated how coordinated intelligence, aerial surveillance, and maritime capabilities strengthen regional efforts to disrupt…

October 20, 2026
Colombia Brings Operational Expertise to the Americas Counter-Cartel CoalitionSecurity & Cooperation

Colombia Brings Operational Expertise to the Americas Counter-Cartel Coalition

Colombia’s entry into the Americas Counter-Cartel Coalition (ACCC) strengthens hemispheric cooperation against transnational organized crime, bringing decades of operational experience and expertise in confronting threats that extend across national borders. Intelligence, maritime and riverine interdiction, special operations, financial investigations, technology, and training are among the capabilities Colombia brings to the Coalition. Developed through years of operations against drug trafficking, armed…

October 19, 2026
Liquid Cocaine Puts Ports, Laboratories, and Customs Agencies to the TestTransnational Crime

Liquid Cocaine Puts Ports, Laboratories, and Customs Agencies to the Test

As customs controls become increasingly sophisticated, transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) are turning to ever more complex concealment methods. Among them is so-called liquid cocaine, produced by altering the drug’s physical properties and incorporating it into seemingly legitimate liquid or viscous substances, such as beverages, fruit juice and pulp, oils, shampoos, creams, and gels. Once it reaches its destination, the cocaine…

October 19, 2026
Beyond Drugs: How Brazilian Criminal Groups Build Territorial PowerTransnational Crime

Beyond Drugs: How Brazilian Criminal Groups Build Territorial Power

The transformation of Brazilian organized crime — from a phenomenon primarily associated with illegal activities into a network capable of exercising territorial and coercive control — is redefining the nature of the challenge criminal factions pose to the state. Criminal power is no longer measured solely by the amount of drugs trafficked or firepower, but also by the ability to…

October 16, 2026
Colombia Targets the Networks that Sustain Criminal ControlTransnational Crime

Colombia Targets the Networks that Sustain Criminal Control

Colombia is intensifying its offensive against criminal organizations with a strategy aimed not only at their armed members and drug trafficking operations, but also at the finances and illicit economies that allow them to maintain territorial control. “We are going to strike their structures, their leaders, their finances, and the illicit economies that fuel their criminal machinery,” President Abelardo De…

October 16, 2026
Peru, Ecuador Step Up Cooperation to Counter the Spread of Illegal MiningTransnational Crime

Peru, Ecuador Step Up Cooperation to Counter the Spread of Illegal Mining

Peru and Ecuador are coordinating their security forces against illegal mining and logging along their shared border with a clear objective: preventing criminal networks from shifting their operations across the border when pressure increases in either country. In May 2026, the countries’ defense ministers met in Arenillas, Ecuador, and agreed to strengthen cooperation against transnational organized crime, illegal mining, and…

October 15, 2026
Paraguayan NCOs, Massachusetts Guard Build Trust in Leadership ExchangeSecurity & Cooperation

Paraguayan NCOs, Massachusetts Guard Build Trust in Leadership Exchange

Sixty members of the Paraguayan Armed Forces attended a noncommissioned officer professional development (NCOPD) event in partnership with the Massachusetts National Guard in Asunción, Paraguay, September 15-18. The bilateral engagement capped more than three years of coordination and collaboration among senior enlisted leaders from Massachusetts and Paraguay. Organizers designed the multi-day event to build the essential leadership skills NCOs need…

October 15, 2026
Operation Ultramar: Dominican Republic, US Disrupt Traffickers in the Central CaribbeanTransnational Crime

Operation Ultramar: Dominican Republic, US Disrupt Traffickers in the Central Caribbean

From August 15–28, 2026, the Dominican Republic and the United States combined intelligence, surveillance, maritime patrol aircraft, surface vessels, and partner-nation interdiction capabilities during Operation Ultramar, a coordinated counternarcotics effort in the Central Caribbean. The operation demonstrated how the Dominican Republic and the United States, supported by regional and international partners, can apply persistent systemic friction to transnational criminal organizations…

October 14, 2026