convergence

Luna
renewed multilateral diplomacy, leveraging bilateral and global partnerships to elevate the importance
of combating transnational organized crime as a key area of cooperation internationally.
Globalization and Horizontal Diversification of Illicit Networks
Since the end of the Cold War, the world has witnessed the expansion of transnational criminal
organizations beyond their traditional boundaries. They are quick to identify new opportunities
and spread into new geographic areas where national and international responses have
yet to pose a credible threat to the survival of their operations. No region is immune. Today,
the major organized crime groups have become even more global in reach, operating not only
in the United States and Latin America, but also in West Africa, Southeast Europe, Asia, and
Russia, integrating within and across networks in all regions of the world.
Central America and West Africa have become central areas of concern as safe havens for
converging threats where trafficking in drugs, people, weapons, and other illicit commodities
fuels instability and insecurity. Colombian drug cartels, which have long been viewed as a
major security threat in the Western Hemisphere, are now expanding their activities beyond
traditional areas of operation. Multi-ton shipments of Colombian cocaine now flow through
West Africa as a transit point for moving the product to Europe and beyond. At the same
time, West African drug traffickers have recently been spotted moving South American cocaine
as far away as South Asia. West African drug mules have been caught at ports of entry from
Florida to Thailand. Piracy in the waters off the Horn of Africa remains a serious challenge
to humanitarian aid and commerce, and the problem is getting worse. Piracy presents a clear
and present danger to the international maritime shipping industry, on which much of the
global economy depends; to fragile political progress and development in Somalia; and to
humanitarian assistance and trade in the region.
The security threats of today are more sophisticated and complex than in the past;
converging threat networks are forming alliances where previously the parties acted alone.
The illicit proceeds of global drug trafficking are among the funds used for arms trafficking
to the Taliban in Afghanistan and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, while drug
traffickers themselves engage in countless other illicit activities—from antiquities smuggling to
human trafficking—to launder money. Ideologically motivated terrorists such as al Qaeda in
the Islamic Maghreb, Lebanese Hizballah, and al-Shabaab in the Horn of Africa are in some
instances engaging with or benefiting from criminal organizations following a strict profit
motive, and in other situations becoming criminal entrepreneurs in their own right, engaging
in actions such as kidnapping for ransom.
Traders in illicit goods poison legitimate supply chains, markets, and communities with
low-quality counterfeits, inherently illicit goods such as narcotics, and illegally procured
goods such as blood diamonds that are traded on the black market. In some cases, organized
criminal groups seize control of a legitimate supply chain or exploit the legitimate global
financial infrastructure to launder the proceeds of crime. Today’s enhanced communications
and cyber technologies allow cyber criminals in one part of the world to cooperate with virtual
accomplices across the globe in real time. Most worryingly, threats such as international arms
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