International Day for the Prevention of and Fight against All Forms of Transnational Organized Crime

Criminal financial enterprises and illicit financial flows divert vital funds away from social, health, and other development needs. Criminal groups now use AI, deepfakes and voice cloning to deceive and exploit, while targeting children in online spaces like social media and gaming platforms. The United Nations is working to Stop Organized Crime and make the digital world safer for everyone . Illicit financial flows from organized crime drain essential resources from development. They weaken governance, distort trade and deepen inequality, undermining the systems meant to protect people and support progress. Together we must act to Stop Organized Crime.

  This report series provides an in-depth analysis of the dynamics driving illegal mining in Ghana , its regional spread, and the actors profiting from it. Based on three years of field research, remote sensing analysis, interviews and desk research, part 1 examines two key case study regions—Western and Savannah—and explores how unlicensed ASGM has grown in scale, complexity, and impact. Part 2 will explore illicit gold supply chains and financial networks in more depth. In places like the Western region, satellite imagery shows dramatic increases in mining activity, with many operations occurring outside officially licensed zones. The environmental impacts are stark. Unregulated use of mercury in gold processing is harming water systems , while mining expansion is causing deforestation and loss of biodiversity. Remote sensing tools—including radar interferometry, flow accumulation analysis, and computer vision models—have been employed to track these developments and predict f...

  This publication explores the multifaceted risks associated with migrants transfers . Authored by Dr. Matt Herbert, the report presents a detailed analysis of how migrant expulsions could exacerbate instability in Libya and fuel smuggling and extortion networks . Libya remains an extremely fragile state, with two rival governments and widespread militia activity. Since the 2011 revolution, illicit markets have also flourished. Among the most developed and dangerous is that for human smuggling and trafficking, marked by the exploitation of migrants through extortion, forced labour, and predation. Both official and unofficial detention facilities are sites of chronic human rights violations , including torture, sexual violence, and ransom-driven extortion. Migrants deported from the US risk becoming entangled in this. Beyond humanitarian risks, the political implications of deportations would be severe. They would inflame tensions in the Tripolitania region, weakening the alr...

  - Summary highlights - Conflict, coups and containers: why the Sahel cocaine routes were disrupted. Northbound trans-Sahelian trafficking routes underpin a substantial minority of cocaine exports from West Africa to Europe. While available evidence indicates that these routes experienced a resurgence between 2019 and 2023, recent research reveals that this trend is likely to have been disrupted by political upheaval and armed conflicts since mid-2023. Trafficking volumes through northern Niger are reported to have fallen sharply, though trafficking routes through northern Mali remain largely resilient and have restructured operations. Indications of significant cocaine trafficking in southern Mali should largely not be read as north-bound flows. Instead, they reflect West Africa’s growing role as a recontainerization hub, with routes between coastal points of import and export shaped by the export potential of subregional maritime ports.  Read more The shadow constellat...

  The militant Islamist group al-Shabaab has long remained influential in Mogadishu through its sophisticated extortion system, which demands zakat payments —forced charitable tax— and levies on trade and real estate transactions. The group reportedly generates over US$100 million annually, with an estimated one-third of its revenue derived from Mogadishu alone. The report highlights urgent gaps in Anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) enforcement . While Somalia introduced its first domestic sanctions list in 2024, poor compliance and lack of institutional capacity continue to hinder impact. Recommendations include enhanced AML/CFT training for non-financial sectors, incentives for compliance, biometric ID enrolment, and smarter sanctions enforcement through international collaboration.

  SANCTIONS AND ORGANIZED CRIME Eastern African States observatories, Western Eastern Africa Observatories Mercenaries and Illicit Markets: Russia's Africa Corps and the business of conflict.

  Russian companies influence on Africa's illicit economies post-wagner. Eastern African States Observatories, Eastern Southeast Africa Observatories, West Eastern African Observatories