Transnational Organized Crime in the United States

Defintion

Transnational organized crime refers to those self-perpetuating associations of individuals who oper- ate transnationally for the purpose of obtaining power, influence, monetary and/or commercial gains, wholly or in part by illegal means, while protecting their activities through a pattern of corruption and/ or violence, or while protecting their illegal activities through a transnational organizational structure and the exploitation of transnational commerce or communication mechanisms. There is no single structure under which transnational organized criminals operate; they vary from hierarchies to clans, networks, and cells, and may evolve to other structures. The crimes they commit also vary. Transnational organized criminals act conspiratorially in their criminal activities and possess certain characteristics which may include, but are not limited to:

• In at least part of their activities they commit violence or other acts which are likely to intimidate, or make actual or implicit threats to do so;
• They exploit differences between countries to further their objectives, enriching their organiza- tion, expanding its power, and/or avoiding detection/apprehension;
• They attempt to gain influence in government, politics, and commerce through corrupt as well as legitimate means;
• They have economic gain as their primary goal, not only from patently illegal activities but also from investment in legitimate businesses; and
• They attempt to insulate both their leadership and membership from detection, sanction, and/ or prosecution through their organizational structure.

Introduction

“Combating transnational criminal and trafficking networks requires a multidimensional strategy that safeguards citizens, breaks the financial strength of criminal and terrorist networks, disrupts illicit trafficking networks, defeats transnational criminal organizations, fights government corruption, strengthens the rule of law, bolsters judicial systems, and improves transparency. While these are major challenges, the United States will be able to devise and execute a collective strategy with other nations facing the same threats.” (National Security Strategy, May 2010).

In January 2010, the United States Government completed a comprehensive review of international
organized crime—the first on this topic since 1995. Based on the review and subsequent reporting,
the Administration has concluded that, in the intervening years, international—or transnational—
organized crime has expanded dramatically in size, scope, and influence and that it poses a significant
threat to national and international security. In light of the review’s findings, we have adopted the term
“transnational organized crime” (TOC) to describe the threats addressed by this Strategy. While the term
“international organized crime” has been commonly used in the past, “transnational organized crime”
more accurately describes the converging threats we face today. As emphasized in the National Security
Strategy: “…these threats cross borders and undermine the stability of nations, subverting government
institutions through corruption and harming citizens worldwide.”

In years past, TOC was largely regional in scope, hierarchically structured, and had only occasional links
to terrorism. Today’s criminal networks are fluid, striking new alliances with other networks around the
world and engaging in a wide range of illicit activities, including cybercrime and providing support
for terrorism. Virtually every transnational criminal organization and its enterprises are connected and
enabled by information systems technologies, making cybercrime a substantially more important
concern. TOC threatens U.S. interests by taking advantage of failed states or contested spaces; forging
alliances with corrupt foreign government officials and some foreign intelligence services; destabilizing
political, financial, and security institutions in fragile states; undermining competition in world strategic
markets; using cyber technologies and other methods to perpetrate sophisticated frauds; creating the
potential for the transfer of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) to terrorists; and expanding narcotrafficking and human and weapons smuggling networks. Terrorists and insurgents increasingly are turning to criminal networks to generate funding and acquire logistical support. TOC also threatens the interconnected trading, transportation, and transactional systems that move people and commerce throughout the global economy and across our borders.

In October 2010, the national security advisors of 44 nations gathered in Sochi, Russia to discuss transnational crime. Representing the United States, former National Security Advisor General James L. Jones, USMC, Ret. warned of the TOC threats to international security and urged immediate international
action, saying:

“In a world full of transnational threats, transnational crime is in an ascendant phase… This lethal nexus of organized crime, narco-trafficking, and terrorism is a threat that the United States, Russia and all of us share and should be working together to combat… Today, right now, we have an opportunity for cooperation not just between the United States and Russia, but among all nations represented here today. It’s up to us to seize the moment…”

The various elements of this Strategy flow from a single unifying principle: we will build, balance, and integrate the tools of American power to combat TOC and related threats to national security and urge our foreign partners to do the same. To this end, the Strategy recognizes TOC as a significant threat to national and international security and emphasizes U.S. planning, priorities, and activities accordingly. The Strategy addresses TOC and drug trafficking as increasingly intertwined threats to maximize the impact of U.S. resources. It also provides a framework to direct U.S. power against those TOC actors, activities, and networks that are determined to pose the greatest threat to national and international security.

This Strategy establishes priority actions in several key areas. It starts by taking a hard look at what actions the United States can take within its own borders to lessen the threat and impact of TOC domestically and on our foreign partners. The other priority actions seek to:

Enhance Intelligence and Information Sharing;
Protect the Financial System and Strategic Markets Against Transnational Organized Crime;
Strengthen Interdiction, Investigations, and Prosecutions;
Disrupt Drug Trafficking and Its Facilitation of Other Transnational Threats; and
Build International Capacity, Cooperation, and Partnerships.

This Strategy complements but does not replicate the work of other major U.S. security initiatives. It is guided by the National Security Strategy and interlocks with other U.S. strategies and initiatives, to include the National Drug Control Strategy, the National Strategy for Counterterrorism, the International Strategy for Cyberspace, the National Strategy to Combat Weapons of Mass Destruction, the U.S.-Mexico Merida Initiative, the Law Enforcement Strategy to Combat International Organized Crime, the National Strategy for Maritime Security, Countering Piracy Off the Horn of Africa: Partnership & Action Plan, and several other U.S. security assistance, counterdrug, and capacity-building efforts around the world.

The Interagency Policy Committee (IPC) on Illicit Drugs and Transnational Criminal Threats will oversee a whole-of-government approach to implementing this Strategy. Co-chaired by the National Security Staff and the Office of National Drug Control Policy, this IPC will issue implementation guidance, establish performance measures, and receive regular progress updates from the interagency community. This IPC will be informed by and work with other IPCs such as the Maritime Security IPC. With a new Strategy to Combat Transnational Organized Crime and an array of new authorities and tools, this Administration is committing itself to ensuring that we rise to the national security challenges of the 21st century and ensure an international order that protects the safety and well-being of our citizens.

Strategy to Combat Transnational Organized Crime

For decades, the United States and other countries have dismantled scores of criminal organizations around the world. The U.S. experience with La Cosa Nostra, as well as Colombia’s experience with the Medellin and Cali Cartels—and even the FARC—prove that it is possible to constrain, shrink, disrupt and dismantle criminal and insurgent groups once considered to be untouchable.

This Strategy builds upon such past experience. Today the threat from TOC is more complicated because criminal networks are more fluid and are using increasingly sophisticated tactics. TOC can exploit the interconnected nature of our modern trading, transportation, and transactional systems that move people and commerce throughout the global economy and across our borders. Countering TOC today requires an integrated and comprehensive approach. This Strategy sets out such an approach to raise international awareness about the reality of the TOC threat to international security; galvanize multilateral action to constrain the reach and influence of TOC; deprive TOC of its enabling means and infrastructure; shrink the threat TOC poses to citizen safety, national security, and governance; and ultimately defeat the TOC networks that pose the greatest threat to national security.

TOC presents sophisticated and multi-faceted threats that cannot be addressed through law enforcement action alone. Accordingly, we will establish an interagency Threat Mitigation Working Group to identify those TOC networks that present a sufficiently high national security threat as to merit the focused use of complementary law enforcement and non-law enforcement assets and that may be vulnerable to whole-of-government responses. The Working Group will ensure the coordination of all elements of national power to effectively protect our borders, people, economy, and financial system from the threats posed by the most dangerous and sophisticated of these transnational criminal networks.

This Strategy sets out five overarching policy objectives that are consistent with the vision and priorities of the National Security Strategy:

1. Protect Americans and our partners from the harm, violence, and exploitation of transna­tional criminal networks. Our priority is the safety, security, and prosperity of American citizens and the citizens of partner nations. We will target the networks that pose the gravest threat to citizen safety and security, including those that traffic illicit drugs, arms, and people—espe­cially women and children; sell and distribute substandard, tainted and counterfeit goods; rob Americans of their prosperity; carry out kidnappings for ransom and extortion; and seek to terrorize and intimidate through acts of torture and murder.

2. Help partner countries strengthen governance and transparency, break the corruptive power of transnational criminal networks, and sever state-crime alliances. The United States needs willing, reliable and capable partners to combat the corruption and instability generated by TOC and related threats to governance. We will help international partners develop the sustainable capacities necessary to defeat transnational threats; strengthen legitimate and effective public safety, security, and justice institutions; and promote universal values. We will also seek to sever the powerful strategic alliances that form between TOC and states, including those between TOC networks and foreign intelligence services.

3. Break the economic power of transnational criminal networks and protect strategic markets and the U.S. financial system from TOC penetration and abuse. TOC networks—using bribery, fraud, and violence—have the capacity to disrupt economic activity and put legitimate busi­nesses at a distinct competitive disadvantage. We will attack the financial underpinnings of the top transnational criminals; strip them of their illicit wealth; sever their access to the financial system; expose their criminal activities hidden behind legitimate fronts; and protect strategic markets and the U.S. financial system.

4. Defeat transnational criminal networks that pose the greatest threat to national security, by targeting their infrastructures, depriving them of their enabling means, and preventing the criminal facilitation of terrorist activities. We will target, disrupt, and defeat the TOC networks that pose the greatest threat to the safety and security of Americans and U.S. national security interests. These include criminal networks—including transnational criminal gangs—that traffic drugs, bulk cash, arms, people, sensitive documents, or other contraband. Further, we will seek to prevent collaboration between criminal and terrorist networks and deprive them of their critical resources and infrastructure, such as funding, logistical support for transportation, stag­ing, procurement, safe havens for illicit activities, and the facilitation of services and materiel, which could include WMD material.

5. Build international consensus, multilateral cooperation, and public-private partnerships to defeat transnational organized crime. We will build new partnerships—with industry, finance, academia, civil society and non-governmental organizations—to combat TOC networks that operate in the illicit and licit worlds. We will also fight criminal networks with an alliance of legitimate networks, and ensure the freedom of the press so that the media and journalists may safely expose the harms inflicted by TOC. We will expand and deepen our understand­ing, cooperation, and information sharing at home with State and local agencies, with foreign partners, and with multilateral institutions. Internationally, we will further international norms against tolerating or sponsoring crime in all its forms, including in cyberspace.