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.

  Analysis from the Americas States Observatories on the Environmental impacts and transitions across illicit, informal and licit economies in Colombia. Illicit economies have been related in complex ways to the armed conflict and criminal governance in Colombia (CEV, 2022; Rettberg, Cárdenas, Ortiz-Riomalo, 2017). The development of these activities, along with state responses to control them, have had significant consequences for local economies and have also impacted the environmen t (Brombacher, Garzón & Vélez, 2021; UNODC, 2022; UNODC, 2021; Rubiano, Vélez & Rueda, 2020). The aim of this report is to analyze the functioning of the coca, cocaine, and gold mining production markets in Colombia to assess their relationships with environmental damages, such as deforestation . In addition to the functioning of these markets, this research explores the interactions of these illicit activities with other productive sectors that also generate environmental costs, such as cat...