Crime & Conflict, Geocriminality, Sanctions and organized crime

Iran’s criminal statecraft: How Tehran weaponizes illicit markets

Iran's criminal statecraft

...Over the past decade, Iran has turned to criminal markets as a strategic tool to pursue its geopolitical goals. Isolated by international sanctions, Iran has forged extensive ties with criminal networ...

Posted on 30 Oct 2024

Author(s): J.R. Mailey

Global Organized Crime Index

The spoils of crime: Returning profit from crime to society

...Profit and power drive organized crime groups. Whether operating cocaine routes through Belgium or the Netherlands, trafficking arms and ammunitions in the Western Balkans, or smuggling humans across ...

Posted on 29 Oct 2024

Author(s): Chiara Gentili

Global Initiative

Narcas

...Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán is a name that stands out in the world of organized crime, on par with figures such as Al Capone and Pablo Escobar. But during El Chapo’s trial in 2018–2019, one wo...

Posted on 29 Oct 2024

Author(s): Mark Shaw

Drug Policy, Latinoamérica y el Caribe

After the war on drugs: The impacts of cocaine and cannabis regulation in Rio de Janeiro

After the war on drugs:

...What would the consequences of the potential cocaine and cannabis regulation in Rio de Janeiro be? This report dives into analyzing these potential impacts in a city long plagued by violence linked to...

Posted on 28 Oct 2024

Author(s): Carolina Christoph Grillo

Drug Policy, EUR-Obs

The looming threat of synthetic opioids in Europe?

...For over 20 years, the opioid crisis in North America has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, primarily due to over-prescribing by doctors and marketing by pharmaceutical companies of powerful opi...

Posted on 22 Oct 2024

Author(s): Ruggero Scaturro, Daniel Brombacher

Crime & Conflict, Crime Terror Nexus, WEA-Obs

West Africa Risk Bulletin #11

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 11 October 2024 Summary highlights IS Sahel: Consolida...

Posted on 21 Oct 2024

Eco-Solve, AMA-Obs

Criminal networks are driving the Amazon’s climate emergency

...Over the past year, a record number of mass fires have occurred across the Amazon basin. Many of them, particularly those in the Brazilian Amazon – which accounts for over 60 per cent of the rainfor...

Posted on 16 Oct 2024

Author(s): Gabriel Funari, Gabriel Granjo

Global Initiative

Chasing shadows

...Few people recognize the crucial role organized crime plays in supporting terrorism, a relationship known as the crime–terror nexus. A few years ago, Financial Times investigative journalist Miles J...

Posted on 15 Oct 2024

Author(s): Mark Shaw