convergence

Introduction
Just looking at Mexico, billions of dollars pass through the U.S. border into that country
each year. U.S. law enforcement efforts have traditionally focused on stopping the northward
flow of illicit commodities and have neglected the southward flow of weapons and drug money
back to Mexico. With bulk cash as the primary method for moving funds, we must work
harder to increase our interdiction percentage above the current 1 percent of estimated total
funds. Over the past 5 years, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control has
taken steps to institutionalize measures to counter threat finance and protect the financial
system from illicit actors using financial intelligence. Several programs aggressively target
“super-fixers” and other enablers, rogue states, proliferators of weapons of mass destruction,
money launderers, and drug traffickers among other targets. These programs track money
flows and assist with the policy and criminal justice work of other U.S. Government agencies.
Understand the Networks
To best combat the threat posed by converging illicit networks, more intelligence is needed on
the networks—their cultures, motivations, incentives, operations, and structures. Going further,
the SCTOC specifically calls out for the need to improve signals intelligence and human
intelligence collection on transnational organized crime. So far, we have heard of a handful of
efforts to do this. Mapping these networks and their interactions, logistics, operations, personnel,
and finances must be a key policy focus area in the future. Patrick Radden Keefe’s and
Duncan Deville’s chapters offer starting points for further research, both on the networks and
on the hubs that corral their behavior.
From lawyers to scholars to practitioners, the contributors to this book represent a wide
range of disciplines, agencies, and roles in the fight against transnational organized crime. By
connecting these groups, we aim to continue to build the network. It is hoped that this book
will continue the dialogue and stimulate new thinking on how both the U.S. interagency
community and the broader international community can work together more effectively
to attack the illicit networks and contain the threats posed by their globalization, horizontal
diversification, and convergence.
Notes
1 John Robb, Brave New War: The Next Stage of Terrorism and the End of Globalization (New York: Wiley,
2007); Australian Crime Commission, Organised Crime in Australia (Canberra: Australian Organised Crime
Commission, 2011).
2 Strategy to Combat Transnational Organized Crime: Addressing Converging Threats to National Security (Washington,
DC: The White House, July 2011), cover letter by President Barack Obama.
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