HT-Obs

Guns for hire: Should private military companies take on organized crime?

...In March 2025, the Haitian government hired Vectus Global, a private military company (PMC) led by Erik Prince, the founder of US-based PMC Blackwater, to support the public forces in combating crimin...

Posted on 08 Sep 2025

Author(s): Walter Kemp, Romain Le-Cour-Grandmaison

Cities & Illicit Economies, SA-Obs

Western Cape gang monitor – Issue 6

Western Cape gang monitor

...In the past quarter, South Africa has faced national-level scandals relating to policing, corruption and organized crime. At the provincial level in the Western Cape, things have been no less turbulen...

Posted on 08 Sep 2025

Global Initiative

Unregulated fentanyl in North America: A trilateral perspective

Unregulated fentanyl in North America

...More than 1.1 million people in the United States have died from opioid overdoses since 2000. In Canada, over 50,000 lives have been lost to opioid-related overdoses since 2016. Meanwhile, in Mexico, ...

Posted on 04 Sep 2025

Author(s): Cecilia Farfán-Méndez, Jason Eligh

APA-Obs

Sex creation in the digital era

...The adult content industry has undergone a dramatic transformation in the digital era. Online content platforms such as OnlyFans and Fansly have made it easier for individuals to produce, distribute a...

Posted on 03 Sep 2025

Author(s): Sethasiri Tienpiragul

WEA-Obs

What do two recent incidents reveal about Guinea-Bissau’s cocaine politics?

A murder and a shooting

...Guinea-Bissau has long been a central cog in the international cocaine trafficking system. Between 2005 and 2007, consignments of cocaine that had washed up on the country’s beaches was used to pain...

Posted on 29 Aug 2025

EAS-Obs

High-level corruption and state capture in the South Caucasus

Shadow states

...Over the last 35 years, the South Caucasus has undergone profound economic and geopolitical transformations. Yet beneath these changes, certain systems of governance have persisted, cultivating and en...

Posted on 28 Aug 2025

Author(s): Liam O’Shea

APA-Obs

Scam empire strikes back: Crackdowns on Myanmar’s scam industry have had little material impact

...The Wang Xing incident – where a  Chinese influencer was trafficked into and held hostage in multiple scam compounds on the Myanmar–Thailand border in early 2025 – attracted widespread attentio...

Posted on 27 Aug 2025

Author(s): Jason G Tower

Global Initiative

Organized crime in detention

...Prison reform has become increasingly urgent, at a time when the link between the criminal justice system's shortcomings and organized crime has become more apparent. With approximately 11.5 million p...

Posted on 25 Aug 2025

Author(s): Ioana Vasi