In a powerful display of international cooperation, the United States, Guatemala, and Mexico recently joined forces to execute interdiction operations as part of Operation Neptuno, a targeted effort against maritime smuggling routes in the Eastern Pacific. The operation sends a clear message to narcotrafficking networks: The international community is united and relentless in its efforts to dismantle illicit operations. Coordinated…
Browsing: Transnational Crime
Restoring State Presence in Cauca: Colombia’s Long-Term Security Challenge
Colombia’s department of Cauca remains one of the country’s most challenging security environments, where guerrilla factions born from the remnants of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) continue to exploit coca-producing areas, strategic trafficking corridors, and difficult terrain despite sustained government security operations. The department sits at a critical nexus of drug trafficking routes, connecting Colombia’s interior with departure…
Jamaica’s MOCA: Leading the Fight Against Cyber-Enabled Transnational Organized Crime
For years, the public image of Jamaica’s fraud problem has been dominated by one phrase: lottery scamming. But according to the Director General of Jamaica’s Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency (MOCA), Colonel (R.) Desmond Edwards, that characterization no longer reflects the scale, sophistication, or operational realities of the threat facing Jamaica and the wider Caribbean. “What we are confronting…
Maritime Security: The Hemisphere’s New Front Line Against Transnational Crime
Maritime corridors in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific have become one of the Western Hemisphere’s principal security frontiers. In addition to sustaining global trade and regional fishing industries, these routes now operate as logistical arteries for transnational organized crime involved in drug trafficking, arms smuggling, chemical precursor trafficking, and other illicit activities. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs…
Honduras, US Expand Cooperation Against Organized Crime
Cooperation between Honduras and the United States against transnational criminal organizations is increasingly focused on operational coordination, intelligence sharing, and maritime security as authorities confront evolving drug trafficking networks in Central America. Recent meetings and joint initiatives reflect a broader regional effort to strengthen the fight against organized crime, particularly as trafficking routes, criminal structures, and illicit economies continue to…
Partnership and Cooperation: Jamaica’s Force Multiplier Against Transnational Organized Crime
It is no secret that the increasingly borderless nature of transnational organized crime has sent law enforcement bodies worldwide scrambling to keep pace with criminal syndicates. Attackers, money routes, communications channels, and beneficiaries are often spread across multiple jurisdictions, reinforcing the operational reality that cybercrime investigations span several countries simultaneously. In Jamaica, a major shift is taking place as the…
Organized Crime as a Strategic Threat to Democratic Governance in the Hemisphere
Organized crime has evolved from a public security challenge into a strategic threat to democratic governance in Latin America and the Caribbean. Driven by increasingly lucrative illicit markets, criminal organizations have expanded their influence over territories, economies, and institutions, eroding state authority and weakening democracies’ ability to respond. Such is the warning issued by Laura Chinchilla, former president of Costa…
‘Legal Fast’: A New Strategy Against Organized Crime Between Europe and Latin America
As transnational criminal organizations continue adapting their trafficking methods across the Atlantic, authorities from Latin America and Europe are seeking to strengthen not only interdiction efforts, but also the investigations that follow major drug seizures. Against this backdrop, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), together with Belgian partners and countries from Latin America and the Caribbean, launched…
Argentina Positions CRIACO as Southern Cone Hub Against Transnational Crime
Argentina and the United States are further expanding bilateral security cooperation through the launch of the Regional Center for Information and Analysis on Organized Crime (CRIACO), a new initiative aimed at strengthening regional coordination against transnational criminal networks operating across the Southern Cone. Inaugurated in Buenos Aires on April 24, the center is designed to improve intelligence-sharing, operational coordination, and…
A Multinational Dragnet in the Caribbean: How the Zeus Strategy Operates
The multinational Zeus strategy, led by the Colombian Aerospace Force (FAC), has, since its 2019 launch, become one of the region’s most extensive cooperative efforts against transnational organized crime, bringing together dozens of countries and agencies across the Americas and the Caribbean. Zeus Caribbean I, one of its most recent operations in the Caribbean basin, integrated air, maritime, and intelligence…
Investing in Citizen Security: Common Solutions for Common Problems
In a context where organized crime affects numerous communities across Latin America, citizen security has become one of the population’s primary concerns. For Cristian Zamora, mayor of Cuenca, Ecuador, and president of the Latin American Federation of Cities, Municipalities, and Associations of Local Governments (FLACMA), strengthening citizen participation and community cohesion is a fundamental part of the solution. During the…
How Regional ISR Integration Strengthens Countercrime Operations in Central America
Intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities, strengthened through regional cooperation and support from strategic partners, are increasingly shaping how Central American countries detect, track, and respond to transnational criminal activity. Across the region, the integration of advanced monitoring technologies, information-sharing systems, and multinational coordination is improving authorities’ ability to monitor illicit activity across air, maritime, and border corridors frequently exploited…