Lyes is a Senior Analyst at the GI-TOC, working in the Observatory of Illicit Economies in West Africa since October 2021. Since joining the West Africa observatory, Lyes has co-led the illicit hub mapping initiative which seeks to identify major hubs of illicit economies across the region, due to be published in September 2022. He is also the editor of the Observatory’s Risk Bulletin, a quarterly publication which analyzes trends, developments and insights into the relationship between criminal economies and instability across wider West Africa and the Sahel.

Lyes joined the GI-TOC in September 2017 as a Research Assistant. Before joining the West Africa team, Lyes was a senior member of the Organized Crime Index team. He is also co-author of the 2019 Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing Index, as well as curator of the GI-TOC’s #CovidCrimeWatch newsletters, which explored existing and emerging interactions between COVID-19 and the illicit economy around the globe.

Lyes has a BA in Politics and Economics from Newcastle University and a MSc in Security Studies from University College London (UCL). Holding dual British-Algerian nationality and having grown up in Italy, Lyes is fluent in English, French and Italian. His Spanish is a work in progress.