Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border Print PDF

Written by Susan Tiano, Billy Ulibarri, Carolina Ramos

Is there a nexus with immigration policies?

The U.S.-Mexico border presents a distinctive set of challenges for combating human trafficking. The involuntary transport of human beings in order to exploit their labour or sexuality is nothing new. Yet conditions in the current era of globalization—growing economic inequalities within and among nations, increasing flows of labour and products across national borders, and the growth of informal economies and organized criminal networks, to name a few—are causing it to proliferate on a global scale (Farr, 2005).

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Criminal Connections Print PDF

Written by Loretta Napoleoni

Territoriality remains paramount to organized crime, and in a globalised economy the geography of crime expands exponentially. Local criminal organizations are presented with new international opportunities almost daily, as shown by the recent transformation of the Camorra. Over the last few years, the Neapolitan organization internationalised its dirty business by entering into joint ventures with the Chinese Triads operating in Italy.

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Illicit Exploitation of Natural Resources Print PDF

Written by Rico Carish

Over recent years, evidence of the ruinous effects of the illegal exploitation of raw materials on peace and security in many countries, particularly those with weak governance systems, has been piling up. In the maelstrom of conflicts in Angola, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, Liberia and Côte d’Ivoire, warlords and leaders of militias and rebel movements prospered from the pillaging of their nation’s natural wealth as much as financiers of crime rackets, dishonest civil servants, corrupt politicians or national and international corporations.

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Curbing Illicit Brokering in the Arms Trade Print PDF

Written by Valerie Yankey-Wayne, Robin Edward Poulton

Challenges and Opportunities

The 2007 UN Group of Governmental Experts on Illicit Arms Brokering defined a broker as a person or entity acting as an intermediary that brings together relevant parties and arranges or facilitates a potential transaction in return for some form of benefit, whether financial or otherwise. Brokering does not necessarily pass through the territory of the country where the brokering activity takes place, nor does the broker necessarily take ownership of the weapons1.

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Criminal Assets Print PDF

Written by Radha Ivory

A Little Lateral Thinking

From the start of the movement to confiscate assets from transnational criminals, lawmakers have recognized the overlaps between categories of criminal behavior and organization. As the recent resolutions from the UN Security Council attest, they have seen that one person’s terrorist may be another’s freedom fighter – or organized criminal.
Until recently, our willingness to see the links between organized crime, drug trafficking, and terrorism, has not been matched by our willingness to see the relationship between corruption and other ‘macro-crimes’.

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