Transnational Organized Crime in North America (original) (raw)
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Mexican cartels Influence in Central America
According to the US Government, over 60 percent of the cocaine intended for the US market transit through Central American. Since the early 1990’s, Colombian and Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) established logistics bases both on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Central America, facilitating the movements of large shipments of cocaine. In establishing these routes, the DTOs took advantage of a number of local enabling factors. Among them, the preexistence of well-established smuggling networks, the weakness of law enforcement and judicial structures in most countries in the region, and the overall culture of lawless and impunity resulting from the civil conflicts that marked the paths to democracy of some of these nations. The tough campaigns launched against DTOs by the governments of Colombia and Mexico during the past eight years, coupled with the gradual evolution of both local and foreign criminal organizations (COs) involved in (but not exclusively) cocaine trafficking, seem to have further worsened the situation in Central America. Old styled DTOs and local “transportistas” are increasingly challenged by new criminal groups, usually emerging from the military and claiming specific territories. These new groups are exerting a capillary control over all types of criminal activity taking place in the territories under their control. The confrontation between two different criminal “cultures”-- the first, business oriented; the second one, territorial oriented-- constitutes a serious threat not only to the security of citizens, but also to the very consolidation of balanced democratic rule in the region. Mexican DTOs and COs poses a serious threat to Central American, if left unchecked. Responses by national institutions, assisted by their main international partners, will have to be carefully tailored according to the specific feature of the predominant foreign criminal organization operating in its territory. In the case of DTOs, interventions will have to privilege investments in the areas of financial investigations, specialized prosecution and international cooperation, as well as anti-corruption initiatives. In combating COs (Zetas type), intervention will have to privilege restructuring, professionalization and deployment of local police corps that would then be capable of controlling the territory and preventing the infiltration of external criminal actors. In both cases, governments need to strengthen the intelligence capacity of law enforcement agencies allowing the early identification of the likely threat, its analysis and its subsequent removal. National law enforcement and judicial efforts should also be geared toward the creation of a sincere and mutual beneficial international cooperation (both investigative and judicial) that is built not only on common objectives, but also on the use of common investigative instruments and harmonized procedures.
Cross-Border Connections: Criminal Inter-Penetration at the US-Mexico "Hyperborder"
Vortex Working Paper No. 11, 2013
The United States (US) and Mexico share a complex border and a common threat for transnational organized crime. The US-Mexico border is one of the most complex in the world. At first glance cross-border threats appear to be concentrated along the nearly 2,000 mile long frontier. This frontera divides the American states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas from their Mexican counterparts Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas. Yet, as I will describe the impact of cross-border criminal connections reach far from the frontera and influences crime and corruption in major cities and exurban enclaves far from the actual border.
The aim of this research is to understand the role of transnational organized crime in human trafficking along Mexico’s eastern migration routes, from Central America to Mexico’s northeastern border. In this region, drug traffickers are smuggling and trafficking unauthorized migrants in order to diversify their revenue streams. This project analyzes the new role of Central American gangs and Mexican-origin drug trafficking organizations—now known as transnational criminal organizations (TCOs)—in the trafficking of persons from Central America to Mexico’s northeastern border.
Organized Crime in Central America: The Northern Triangle
This publication attempts to create a better understanding of the nature, origins, and evolution of organized crime in Central America by examining the dynamics of organized crime in the three countries of the so-called Northern Triangle—El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras—as well as the broader regional context that links these case studies. The authors investigate the challenge organized crime poses to the state, its institutions, and governability in general. This publication is part of a series on the sub-regional dynamics of organized crime, focusing especially on the linkages between Central America, Mexico, and the Andean region as well as the growing insertion of Latin America in global transnational crime networks.
Asia Pacific Journal of Advanced Business and Social Studies, 2017
The criminal networks in Latin America are expanding and diversifying their activities. As a result, there is a convergence of threats that were traditionally different to modern-day threats that are explosive and with destabilizing-filled impacts. Criminal violence associated with TOC is the most severe problem facing the nations in Latin America. The increased cases of TOCs in the region have led to insecurity and violence across the region; hence, challenges to residents, public security forces and travelers arise. The factors leading to TOC in the region have been grouped into suitable geostrategic position, poor governance, corruption, poverty and also issues of inequality and social mobility. Corruption has greatly facilitated TOC as organized crime representatives bribe such government officials as police officers and the judges. TOCs impair the social and economic systems in the region, undermining the capacity of the nations to govern, and also creating a non-friendly environment for travelers due to high incidences of kidnapping. TOC in Latin America has extended beyond its traditional strongholds of Colombia and Mexico; hence, there is the need for multinational agencies and governments to cooperate in combating the challenge. However, this paper discusses the causes, effects and challenges of transnational organised crimes (TOCs) from the perspective of Latin America. This paper also glimpses at the security system in Latin American countries and how TOCs affect the security system in this region.
North American Organised Crime
Global Crime, 2004
The Italian–American mafia is one of the most enduring images of organised crime, but separating fictional images of organised crime from the real thing has not been easy. Overall, organised crime is a continuing criminal enterprise that rationally works to profit from illicit activities that are often in great public demand. Its continuing existence is maintained through the use of force, threats, monopoly control, and/or the corruption of public officials. The past 20 years have seen a decline in the influence of Italian–American organised crime in the US, but this has been offset by the rise of other forms of organised crime, not least groups from the former USSR. Meanwhile, the Canadian underworld is dominated by Asian groups, East European groups, Italian groups, and outlaw motorcycle gangs. The major organised crime groups in Mexico are extended networks composed of Mexican nationals living in Mexico, Mexican-Americans, and Mexican immigrants living in the United States, operating as competing networks in the illicit drug business from supply, to transit, to destination and buyers.
Transnational organized crime resides at the heart of nearly every major threat confronting the Americas today. These organizations systematically degrade democratic institutions and the rule of law, stunting economic growth and stifling legitimate commerce and investment. The threat of transnational organized crime in the Americas requires greater focus and investment from policymakers to effectively combat illicit trafficking networks, corrupt government officials, gang activity and violence, and the growing presence of hostile extra-regional actors such as Iran and its proxy, Hezbollah. The US government should engage with regional allies to restore the hemispheric coalition against transnational organized crime. The Trump administration can lead the way by applying asymmetrical policy tools such as targeted sanctions while also working to enhance enforcement capabilities, promote economic development, and develop counterterrorism legal frameworks in neighboring states.
Border InsecurIty In central amerIca's northern trIangle
The recent surge in drug trafficking and violent crime in Central America has drawn a spotlight to the perennial problem of lawlessness along the borders of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Throughout their histories, governments in these countries have neglected their peripheries, especially the junglecovered region along the Caribbean coast, across the Petén and Yucatán high plains that border Mexico, and within the central mountain chain. Those communities, isolated due to their difficult topography and, in many cases, their ethnic differences, generally remain impoverished and isolated from national services or politics. Today, these borders are unmarked and largely unrecognized across most of their length. Public security and military forces can only afford to monitor borders in urban areas or at points where major highways cross. Away from these spots, borders are by and large meaningless except for the opportunities they present for residents to arbitrage differences in the supply, demand, and costs of various goods and services, including some that are illegal. Indeed, illicit trafficking provides income, and border communities appear to be benefiting economically from the recent surge in drug trafficking through the region.