Articles on Transnational crime

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Indonesians freed from scam centres wait outside the Indonesian embassy in Phnom Penh for help returning home. Magdalena Chodownik/Anadolu via Getty Images

They escaped appalling conditions in scam factories. Now, they are living on the streets in Cambodia

Thousands of people from Indonesia, China and Africa are waiting for help to return home, but the process has been slow and many are increasingly desperate.
A viral surveillance video allegedly shows armed members of the Tren de Aragua gang at an apartment building in Aurora, Colo. RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images

What is Tren de Aragua? How the Venezuelan gang started − and why US policies may only make it stronger

The State Department declared Tren de Aragua a terrorist organization, and news reports say its members are wreaking havoc across the country. The reality is more nuanced.
The MS-13 gang operates in Central America, Mexico and the U.S. But so far its efforts to get into the drug business have failed. Jose Cabezas/Reuters

MS‑13 is a street gang, not a drug cartel – and the difference matters

Trump justice officials portray the Salvadoran gang MS-13 as a powerful drug cartel staffed with criminal undocumented immigrants. That’s a dangerous mistake if you actually want to prevent violence.
Attempts to curtail demand by resorting to extrajudicial killings may have popular appeal, but may ultimately serve to consolidate crime groups, raise protection costs and temporarily displace activities to less hostile locations. Damir Sagolj/Reuters

Asia is in the grip of a transnational crime crisis – but governments look away

Organised crime groups are profiting from the fruits of globalisation such as free-trade agreements as well as the massive upgrade of the region’s infrastructure and connectivity now underway.
Degrees of dirt: the state and organised crime are not separate entities as we like to believe. Flickr/PropagandaTimes

Challenge 12: Look within for transnational criminals

In part 12 of our multi-disciplinary Millennium Project series, Jacqui Baker argues that the ugly truth of organised crime is that governments and their agencies are a fundamental part of it. Global challenge…

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