convergence

Luna
subregional, and bilateral levels that help to combat cross-border crime and corruption; and
synchronize regional transnational crime units with fusion centers and other intelligence-based
regional policing efforts. The United States is working with Australia, New Zealand, Thailand,
and other partners to coordinate a fourth meeting of the Trans-Pacific initiative, in 2013.
Trans-Atlantic Symposium on Dismantling Transnational Illicit Networks
The United States hosted a similar event in May 2011—the Trans-Atlantic Symposium—
with the European Union (EU) to generate partnerships to address threat convergence across
the trans-Atlantic region. Held in Lisbon, Portugal, the EU and U.S. joint initiative brought
together 300 senior law enforcement and judicial officials from 65 countries including
representatives from the United States, the European Union and its member states, Latin
America, Canada, the Caribbean, and West Africa. Senior representatives of international
and regional organizations included officials from the G8, UNODC, Economic Community
of West African States, OAS, the World Customs Organization, Interpol, European Police
Office (Europol), and the Intergovernmental Action Group Against Money Laundering in
West Africa.
The Symposium launched an interregional dialogue among senior European, U.S., West
African, and Latin American law enforcement and judicial officials on ways to strengthen international
cooperation to combat transnational criminal threats and illicit networks that span
the Atlantic. It focused on cross-border crimes and illicit routes including drugs, arms, human
smuggling/trafficking, money laundering and illicit finance, corruption, and maritime crimes.
The co-organizers were the EU’s European External Action Service working in close
collaboration with the European Commission and the State Department’s Bureau of International
Narcotics and Law Enforcement.
The theme of the Trans-Atlantic Symposium was “Fighting Networks with Networks,”
building on the theme of the Trans-Pacific Symposium. Participants agreed on a new cooperative
platform to counter transnational criminal threats that includes:
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• launching an informal transatlantic network of regional networks of law enforcement
and judicial practitioners that could be interconnected to facilitate intelligence- and
information-sharing arrangements and mutual legal assistance to assist in carrying
out cross-border investigations and prosecution
• developing a clearer picture of transnational crime trends across the Atlantic including
the presence and activities of illicit networks and their illicit financial flows so
government agencies can develop more effective strategies to address transnational
threats and deploy the most effective investigative techniques to disrupt them
• combating high-level corruption and denying safe haven including visas, to illicit
actors