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Log In Sign Up. How big is the threat? There are many activities that can be characterized as transnational organized crime, including human trafficking, drug trafficking and small arms and light weapons which will be discussed in this paper. It threatens peace and human security, leads to human rights being violated and undermines the economic, social, cultural, political and civil development of societies around the world.
Every year, countless lives are lost as a result of organized crime. Drug-related health problems and violence, firearm deaths and unscrupulous methods and motives of human traffickers are all part of this. Each year millions of victims are affected as a result of the activities of the organized groups.
This paper iterate that transnational organized crime requires partnerships at all levels. Government, businesses, civil society, international organizations and people in all corners of the world have a part to play. Who are the traffickers? Human Traffickers may be anyone who profits by receiving cash or other benefits in exchange for sex with woman or child. Women may also be trafficked by friends or family members. Research in Vietnam has found that many women are trafficked by their own boyfriends. Sales of children by parents knowing they will be sex trafficked is rare.
Human traffickers recruit, transport, harbor, obtain, and exploit victims — often using force, threats, lies, or other psychological coercion. Traffickers promise a high-paying job, a loving relationship, or new and exciting opportunities. In other cases, they may kidnap victims or use physical violence to control them. Who are the victims? Victims are frequently lured by false promises of a lucrative job, stability, education, or a loving relationship. While they share the trait of vulnerability, victims have diverse ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds, varied levels of education, and may be documented or undocumented.
Human Trafficking Victims Source: Most traffickers control migrant sex workers through debt bondage accumulated from the cost of smuggling them into Thailand. Some owners buy these debts and then use them to exploit the victim. To initial sum inflated cost may be added for the feeding, housing and unkeep of the victim, extending the period of debt servitude. Even those who migrate with the intention of working in the commercial sex industry may be exploited and become trafficking victims. The map shows that, the district of Svay Pak, north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, attracts a large number of sex workers who migrate from the south of Vietnam for work.
A Global Survey Geneva: International Organization for Migration, , p. The Danger of Oversimplification. A Case Study of Vietnamese in Cambodia. Sex Trafficking in Thailand and Cambodia The Thai sex industry is also partly supplied by women and girls trafficked from neighboring Myanmar, which remains one of the least developed countries in the 6 Ibid. One established route is the border crossing at Tachilek in Myanmar to Maisai in Thailand. The purpose of brothels is more explicit, and they are where most of the trafficking takes place. With less freedom of movement, the women are more easily controlled and coerced.
Trafficking of women and girls from Myanmar into Thailand for the purpose of sexual exploitation has been reported by World Vision and Asian Research Center for Migration ARCM and some involved in sex work in Thailand has been forced into prostitution. The international trade 7 Ibid. The demand for illicit drugs, both in the United States and abroad fuels the power, impunity and violence of criminal organizations around the globe.
World Drug Trafficking Routes Source: There is even a view that drug traffickers operating in the Yunnan province produce more opium trade linkages with the Golden Crescent of Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan and opium producing areas in Mexico and Columbia. Cocaine and amphethamine-at least once in the previous year.
their activities, resulting in a convergence of transnational threats that organized crime (TOC) from a national security threat to a “transnational organized crime” (TOC) to describe the threats addressed by this Strategy. On July 25, , the National Security Staff released its Strategy to Combat Transnational Organized Crime: Addressing Converging Threats to National.
The link between crime and drugs The link between crime and drugs is increasingly affecting societies. Trafficking begets other criminal activity, such as violence between groups competing for market share at the wholesale and retail levels. At the same time, the sums involved give criminals substantial resources with which to organize themselves efficiently, with little or no regard for the fiscal regulatory and legal constraints on normal businesses. These groups also have ties in the United States, endangering our citizens and our economic infrastructure.
The scale of their enterprises, the impact they have on legal economies, and their prospective continued growth argue for sustained national and international attention and resources as a tier-one security threat. To understand and counter these threats, the U. Government must work across bureaucratic lines, which will take new organizational constructs and relationships that are not wedded to parochial border norms.
In addition, the Intelligence Community will be the first line of defense. To fully understand the motivations and vulnerabilities of these TOC networks, the Intelligence Community will need to develop analysts who can assess a sophisticated mix of open-source, law enforcement, and traditional intelligence.
The United States will need to deploy a new type of intelligence professional who is able to work across organizational and geographic boundaries and is willing to share information. This analyst must be an integrator who can work in the collection and analytical worlds and communicate with counterparts in all parts of government, academia, and partner nations. Over the past 10 years, TOC networks have grown in importance and influence throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Never have criminals been so global, so rich, or had so much political influence.
All indicators show that TOC networks will continue to grow, and, in the worst cases, they will work with or will corrupt government institutions to form alliances to gain space to do business. Virtually all criminal cartels and gangs organize in networks connected by violent crime of all types. To survive and prosper, these thugs have become highly intelligent and ruthless. This is affecting societies throughout the Western Hemisphere. In nearly every country in the region, populations state that personal security is their number one concern. Across the region, murder rates are generally higher than 10 years ago.
In addition, drug use is up—a sign that regional drug-trafficking is increasing.
Moreover, the traffickers often pay middlemen in product as a way to increase their customer base. In all four countries, gangs and other violent criminal groups are contributing to escalating murder rates and deteriorating citizen security.
This has overwhelmed civilian law enforcement departments and court systems, many of which were nascent to start with and are characterized by pervasive corruption and chronic underresourcing. Challenges faced by these countries are further exacerbated by the economic power wielded by criminal groups.
The value of cocaine destined for North America dwarfs defense budgets in the subregion and allows significant criminal penetration into governmental organizations, including security forces and judicial systems, as well as legitimate financial networks. The overall value to these criminal networks from the cocaine trade alone is more than the gross domestic product GDP of every country in Latin America except Brazil.
Other estimates of global criminal proceeds range from a low of 4 percent to a high of 15 percent of global GDP. Analysts have described the situation in several countries in Latin America as a criminal insurgency. Its effects on Central America are clear. The murder rate is the highest in the world. MS and M18 gang members routinely torture and intimidate citizens. The homicide rates in El Salvador and Honduras alone, where MS operates extensively, are 82 and 66 per , inhabitants, respectively—over 13 times the rate in the United States.
MS operates throughout Central America and in at least 40 U. The sanctioning of MS is the latest step in a 21 st -century arms race between sovereign governments and violent nonstate networks empowered by technology and globalization. TOC access to regional governments is gaining momentum and leading to co-option in some states and weakening of governance in others.
The nexus in some states among TOC networks and elements of government—including intelligence services and personnel—and big business figures threatens rule of law. These activities are abetted by extortion, kidnapping, counterfeiting, and whatever else turns a profit. As an example, members of Mexican cartels reside in Central America and, according to former Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom, have influence over entire departments there. Polls in Guatemala show that a majority of citizens would exchange less democracy for more security.
A key to countering TOC groups is understanding the smaller networks that make up these larger groups.
Transnational criminal organizations can move anything, and will for a price. These are important elements of the TOC network but little is known about them. These franchises operate in, and control, specific geographic territories that allow them to function in a relatively safe environment.
These pipelines, or chains of networks, are adaptive and able to move a multiplicity of illicit products cocaine, weapons, humans, and bulk cash that ultimately cross U. The actors along the pipeline form and dissolve alliances quickly, occupy both physical and cyber spaces, and use highly developed institutions including the global financial system, as well as ancient smuggling routes and methods. They make a living by moving goods and ensure that they and their families are safe from the TOC group, who may threaten to kill those who do not assist them.
For the United States, these networks challenge national welfare, not necessarily national security. Understanding the varied political landscape the human terrain of the hemisphere is also important as geopolitical fragility opens the way for gangs and cartels to further destabilize civil life.
More than any other problem the United States faces, this particular challenge blurs the line among U. The size, scope, and reach of TOC networks far surpass the ability of any one agency or nation to confront this threat alone.