convergence

Combating Transnational Organized Crime
extortion, smuggling persons, and other crimes. As the Mexican government disrupted transnational
criminal organizations, these groups increasingly fought for market share, escalating
violence against one another, targeting Mexican security forces using military-like weapons,
tactics, and techniques, and endangering the civilian population in the process. Mexican
criminal organizations also expanded their operations into Central America and have reached
into the United States, penetrating cities such as Chicago, Detroit, and Atlanta, far from the
border. The diversification of criminal activity and the increase in violence forced the Mexican
military to assume even more prominent roles, while simultaneously transforming themselves
to become more capable of protecting the public from hybrid, irregular threats.
The Way Forward
As the spectrum demonstrates, DOD tailors the type of support it provides to law enforcement,
other U.S. Government agencies, and foreign partners. Given the ever-evolving character
of transnational organized crime, this adaptability allows DOD to have significant strategic
impact in a range of circumstances. There are risks, however, of overextension and redundancy.
Providing support across a wide spectrum of efforts demands that DOD carefully prioritize
the specific activities it undertakes—a prescient requirement as resources shrink.
DOD has taken important steps toward setting clear priorities for its actions against
transnational organized crime. The Department’s Counternarcotics and Global Threats Strategy,
derived from national strategic and military guidance, is a key departure point for how
DOD combats transnational organized crime. But this strategy is not exhaustive. There are
manifestations of organized crime such as cybercrime, financial crimes, and state-sponsored
illicit activities that DOD has not yet fully integrated into its strategy and policy development.
Doing so will be critical to ensuring that the resources expended against criminal organizations
have maximum strategic impact.
The Department must also link its efforts against transnational organized crime with other
national security priorities. The strategies and policies created and implemented to combat
the threats posed by criminal networks should be connected to other focal points for DOD
and the U.S. Government—particularly cybersecurity, counterterrorism, counterproliferation,
building partner capacity, and strengthening governance. Holistic approaches that recognize
transnational organized crime not as a stovepiped problem but as a nefarious feature of the
global security environment that touches the whole world and impacts a multitude of vital
U.S. interests are the types most likely to succeed over the long term.
DOD understands that the most important prerequisite to success against transnational
organized crime is organizational flexibility and adaptability. As the character of transnational
criminal organizations continues to change and DOD and its U.S. Government partners hone
their understanding of the types of national security threats these groups pose, we must be
able to shift our strategies, priorities, policies, operations, and tactics for combating them. To
fail in our mission because DOD is unable to organize itself properly is unacceptable, yet it
remains a risk if we do not assume the characteristics of flexible, flat organizations.
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