Browsing: Transnational Crime

Drug-related violence in Bolivia is escalating, with executions and score-settling highlighting intensifying competition for international trafficking corridors. These dynamics are increasingly linked to disputes over access to routes and control of cocaine flows, rather than isolated criminal acts. This trend reflects greater coordination among transnational networks, as international cooperation efforts aim to contain its impact on regional security. “Homicides —…

A newly formalized intelligence-sharing agreement between Colombia and Brazil is already translating into operational gains across the Amazon, as both countries deepen coordination against narcotrafficking and illegal mining along their shared waterways. Colombia and Brazil have formalized procedures for the exchange of intelligence information through a bilateral protocol supported by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The…

Paraguay is intensifying its fight against transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) through a strategy that emphasizes cross-border coordination, interagency cooperation, and sustained security operations in key frontier regions. At the center of this effort is Operation Escudo Guaraní, a large-scale, ongoing deployment with no fixed end date, mobilizing thousands of military and law enforcement personnel to disrupt drug trafficking networks, dismantle…

The Colombian Amazon faces a paradox: While farmers lack road infrastructure to transport legal products, a growing network of informal trails — precarious, unpaved rural roads — has proliferated across the region. Authorities warn that many of these routes have become logistical corridors for transnational criminal economies, used to transport drugs, supplies for coca production, illegally mined gold, and other…

This article was originally published by U.S. Northern Command’s magazine The Watch, on March 20, 2026. Hezbollah, a United States-designated foreign terrorist organization (FTO), has a long history of operating in Latin America dating back to the 1980s, shortly after its formation in Lebanon. Active in 12 Latin American nations, including Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico, the terror group attacked synagogues…

In a powerful demonstration of international cooperation, Ecuador and the United States concluded Operation Pulpo (Octopus) in late March, a highly successful joint counternarcotics mission in the Eastern Pacific. The operation disrupted key maritime smuggling routes used by narcoterrorist networks, resulting in significant drug seizures and highlighting the evolving nature of multinational efforts to counter narcoterrorism. The Eastern Pacific remains…