Global Organized Crime Index

The totoaba trafficking route

...In China’s luxury goods market, swim bladders from the totoaba fish are sold at prices that rival the cost of gold. This extraordinary value has turned the endangered species, found only in Mexicoâ€...

Posted on 22 Dec 2025

Author(s): Jean-Jacques Schwenzfeier

APA-Obs

Minimizing risks of criminal exposure to scam compounds in corporate supply chains

Minimizing risks of criminal exposure to scam compounds in corporate supply chains

...Highly organized cyber fraud in South East Asia is widely run from so-called scam compounds: purpose-built or modified buildings that meet the precise requirements of this criminal industry. These com...

Posted on 19 Dec 2025

Author(s): Lindsey Kennedy, Nathan Paul Southern

CA-Obs

Behind the blockchain: Cryptocurrency and criminal capture in the Central African Republic

Behind the blockchain

...Over the past three years, the Central African Republic (CAR) has implemented a series of cryptocurrency initiatives that have unfolded amid extreme political instability, armed violence and shrinking...

Posted on 17 Dec 2025

NAS-Obs

Human smuggling and trafficking in North Africa and the Sahel 2025

Human smuggling and trafficking in North Africa and the Sahel

...North Africa and the Sahel have long been central regions for migrant movement, human smuggling and trafficking, with their importance growing steadily since the late 1990s. Today, they remain critica...

Posted on 15 Dec 2025

Author(s): Rupert Horsley, Alice Fereday

EAS-Obs

Why Ukraine must seize this moment to free itself of the shadow system

...On 28 November, Andriy Yermak, head of the president’s office and arguably the second most powerful man in Ukraine, announced that he was resigning after searches at his apartment linked to Operatio...

Posted on 13 Dec 2025

Author(s): Alex Goodwin

SA-Obs

Western Cape Gang Monitor – Issue 7

Western Cape Gang Monitor

...A year of escalating gang violence in the Western Cape has sustained the worrying upward trend of the past five years. This issue of the Western Cape Gang Monitor summarizes the factors that have driv...

Posted on 12 Dec 2025

WEA-Obs

West Africa Risk Bulletin #13

Observatory of illicit economies in West Africa

...Risk Bulletin Download PDF Click here to view the Global Organized Crime Index fr Français Observatory of Illicit Economies in West Africa Issue 13 December 2025 Summary highlights Arms trafficking r...

Posted on 10 Dec 2025