Edited by Cynthia J. Arnson and Eric L. Olson

In early May 2011, dozens of gunmen entered a farm in Guatemala’s Petén region, murdering and decapitating 27 people. Guatemalan authorities as well as speculation in the press have blamed the Zetas, a violent Mexican drug trafficking cartel increasingly active in Guatemala and other parts of Central America . Whether a vengeance killing following the murder of a presumed drug lord, or a struggle amongst the Zetas and Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel for the control of territory and smuggling routes, the massacre underscores the vulnerability of the civilian population in unsecured border areas between Mexico and Guatemala, where narcotics and human trafficking flourish. In response, the government of President Álvaro Colom declared a state of siege similar to the one declared from December 2010-February 2011 in the department of Alta Verapaz. This incident and others like it underscore the serious threat to democratic governance, human rights, and the rule of law posed by organized crime in Central America. The international community has begun to address the burgeoning crisis and commit significant resources to the fight against crime and violence; indeed, not since the Central American wars of the 1980s-1980s has the region commanded so much attention in the international arena. To better understand the nature, origins, and evolution of organized crime in Central America, and thereby contribute to the efforts of policymakers and civil society to address it, the Latin American Program commissioned a series of case studies that looked at the countries of the so-called Northern Triangle—El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras— and at the broader regional context affecting national dynamics. Our interest was to understand more fully how organized crime has evolved in Central America, and to examine the links between organized crime and traffickers in Central America, Mexico and Colombia. What role does Central America play in the supply chain for illegal goods between the Andes and the United States, and how have trafficking organizations from these areas related to one another over time? The growing presence and activities of organized crime groups in Central America has worsened an already alarming crisis of citizen security. In mid- 2010, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights reported that Latin America had the highest levels of youth violence in the world . UN figures indicate that the rate of youth homicide in Latin America is more than double that of Africa, and 36 times the rate of developed countries . An oft-referenced study by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) noted in 2009 that the seven countries of Central America—Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama—register the highest levels of non-political violence in the world; this observation has been echoed in statements by the U.S. Department of Defense . The situation is most acute in the countries of the Northern Triangle6 . In El Salvador alone, sixty-eight percent of homicide victims are between the ages of fifteen and thirty-four, and nine out of ten victims are male7 . Countries such as Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Belize are also witnessing rising rates of insecurity associated with the increased presence of organized crime.

Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Latin American Program, 2011. 254p.

By Celina Realuyo

The illicit drug trade in the Americas has been evolving and expanding from plant-based narcotics like cocaine, heroin and marijuana to potent synthetic substances like fentanyl and methamphetamine. Since the 1980’s, the U.S. war on drugs focused on countering cocaine trafficking that made the Colombian and Mexican cartels immensely wealthy and powerful. Over the past decade, U.S. narcotic consumption has shifted significantly from cocaine to opioids and methamphetamine, resulting in an unprecedented opioid epidemic with 72,037 drug overdose deaths recorded in 2017 according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Meanwhile, Mexican cartels are increasingly trafficking opioids and synthetics to respond to market changes in the U.S. The atomization of large cartels and increased competition to dominate trafficking routes resulted in record levels of violence in Mexico with 29,111 homicides registered in 2018. The October 17, 2019 failed Mexican government operation to capture one of El Chapo Guzman’s sons demonstrated how the Sinaloa cartel outgunned Mexican security forces and terrorized the city of Culiacan for hours. This paper will examine the evolving drug trade across the Americas from plant-based to synthetic drugs, the role of the Darknet as a force multiplier for the narcotics market, and U.S. and Mexican national and international efforts to address the dynamic drug trade and associated violence. Narcotics trafficking continues to be the most lucrative illicit activity in the world and is increasingly adapting and leveraging cyberspace. Drug demand changes are impacting the U.S. and Mexican security in different but equally concerning ways. As cocaine production in Colombia reaches its highest levels in history consumption in the U.S. is falling. As a result, cocaine traffickers are seeking new markets as far as Asia and Europe. Meanwhile, heroin use in the U.S. has spread across suburban and rural communities and socioeconomic classes with over 90% of heroin in the U.S. originating from Mexico. Potent synthetic opioids like fentanyl have become more prevalent and popular in the U.S. resulting in the tragic opioid crisis. Mexican cartels are increasingly involved in heroin, fentanyl and methamphetamine trafficking into the U.S. and becoming more formidable. The U.S. and Mexico need to better understand this shift in narcotics demand and the corresponding modifications in the production, marketing, distribution and consumption aspects of drug trafficking. As narcotic offerings diversify and the Internet plays a more critical role in drug trafficking, these changes are affecting public health and security in the U.S. and Mexico. Both governments must strive to design timely responses to reduce demand, increase treatment, and improve supply reduction strategies through increased interagency and international cooperation as narcotics trafficking has increasingly adapted to new trends and enforcement efforts.

Washington, DC: Wilson Center, Mexico Institute, 2020. 16p.

By Steven S. Dudley

The U.S. Government estimates that 90 percent of the illicit drugs entering its borders passes through the Central American Isthmus and Mexico. Of this, close to half goes through Central America.1 Functioning as a transshipment point has had devastating consequences for Central America, including spikes in violent crime, drug use and the corroding of government institutions. Mexico receives most of the media attention and the bulk of U.S. aid, but the Northern Triangle – Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras – have combined murder rates roughly double that of Mexico. While Mexico is having some limited success dealing with its spiraling conflict, vulnerable States in Central America are struggling to keep the organized criminal groups at bay, even while they face other challenges such as widespread gang activity. U.S. and Mexican efforts to combat the drug cartels in Mexico seem to have exacerbated the problems for Central America, evidenced by ever increasing homicide rates. 2 “As Mexico and Colombia continue to apply pressure on drug traffickers, the countries of Central America are increasingly targeted for trafficking, which is creating serious challenges for the region,” the State Department says in its recently released narcotics control strategy report.3 Problems are particularly acute in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, three States with vast coastlines, large ungoverned spaces and the greatest proximity to Mexico. However, geography is only part of the problem. Armed conflicts in Guatemala, El Salvador and parts of Honduras between 1960 and the mid-1990s laid the foundations for the weapons trafficking, money laundering and contraband traffic that we are witnessing today. Peace accords in Guatemala and El Salvador, and police and military reform, only partially resolved deep-seeded socio-economic and security issues, and, in some cases, may have accelerated a process by which drug traffickers could penetrate relatively new, untested government institutions. Despite the gravity of the problem, Central America has had little regional or international cooperation to combat it. Examples of cross-border investigations are few. Communication between law enforcement is still mostly done on an ad-hoc basis. Efforts to create a centralized crime database have failed. Local officials are equally frustrated by the lack of international engagement and policies that often undermine their ability to control crime, especially as it relates to alleged gang members.

Washington DC: Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars; Trans-Border Institute, San Diego: University of San Diego; 2010. 30p.

By Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA)

The coronavirus pandemic of 2020 saw the world come to a virtual standstill, with global lockdowns disrupting or halting transport and trade routes and travel. The hopes that illegal wildlife trade activities would also be disrupted or halted were largely misplaced – as millions of people worldwide adapted and started working from home, so too did the traffickers. Over the past decade, we have seen a shift of focus as organised criminal networks involved in illegal wildlife trafficking from the continent of Africa to markets in East and South-East Asia have further turned their attention from East and Southern Africa to West and Central Africa, moving their operations to both source and export increasing quantities of illegal wildlife. Based on ongoing EIA investigations, this report presents a brief analysis of these two regions and provides an overview of the ongoing activities of the networks operating in them. Through engagement with illegal traffickers and traders operating out of Nigeria and beyond, details and documents shared with investigators reveal how they exploit the existing status quo of the region, which has a wealth of natural resources but is faced with a number of challenges – pockets of civil unrest, high levels of poverty and weak rule of law, all underpinned by corruption.

London; Washington, DC: EIA, 2020. 27p.

By Bridget Connelly and Henry Peyronnin

Wildlife trafficking in the air sector in Latin America and the Caribbean (also known as the LAC region) is a serious and significant problem. As in other regions, the confluence of habitat destruction, economic polarization, and convenient availability of international travel has facilitated wildlife trafficking at a national, regional, and international level. The consequences for wildlife populations have been dire – against the backdrop of a 94% drop in regional animal population sizes between 1970 and 2020, the C4ADS Air Seizure Database shows that seizures of animal products along air routes increased steadily until 2019.

The LAC region poses particular concern for two reasons. First, it is one of the principal remaining repositories of biological and species diversity in the world. Increasing wildlife trafficking will continue to degrade this essential environment. Second, the LAC region is the home to many of the world’s most capable and violent trafficking organizations, which raises the risk that wildlife trafficking will empower organizations seeking to impose more direct harms on humans.

Washington, DC: USAID Reducing Opportunities for Unlawful Transport of Endangered Species (ROUTES). 2021. 16p.

By Livia Wagner

Criminal groups quickly recognized that controlling large swaths of land and illicit and legitimate enterprises linked to illegal gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon enabled them to generate larger profit margins with fewer risks due to the lack of a government law enforcement presence. Gold constitutes an ideal medium for criminal groups to launder proceeds obtained from other illegal activities. Compared to other natural resources and illicit goods, gold is valuable by volume. Also, COVID-19 is not only having an impact on the global economy and surging unemployment. It is driving gold prices to historical record highs since 2012, leading to an influx of illegal miners to unlicensed mining sites where they invade protected indigenous lands, stripping swaths of forest bare, poisoning rivers with mercury, and laundering illegal gold through mineral shops. The nexus between illegal mining and other organized crime complicates the design of strategies to address this problem effectively. Specifically, intersections with human trafficking and forced labor, migrant smuggling, and the drug trade have been identified. However, the form and degree can vary significantly.

Miami: Florida International University, The Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy, 2021. 27p.

By Livia Wagner

Throughout history, man has venerated gold. Gold was the first of the three gifts of the Magi to Jesus. For much of the 19th and 20th centuries, the values of world currencies were fixed in terms of gold (the Gold Standard). Olympic athletes vie for gold medals and the best footballer in the world is awarded the Ballon d’Or. An extremely well behaved child is ‘as good as gold’ and a generous person has ‘a heart of gold’.

It is only natural to think positively about gold, just as it is equally natural to think negatively about drugs. But, as the Global Initiative proves in its latest research report: “Organised Crime and Illegally Mined Gold in Latin America”, illegally mined gold is now more important to organized crime in some countries of Latin America than narcotics:

In Peru and Colombia – the largest cocaine producers in the world – the value of illegal gold exports now exceeds the value of cocaine exports.

Illegal mining is the easiest and most profitable way to launder money in the history of Colombian drug trafficking.

Geneva, SWIT: Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, 2016. 100p.

By Camila Gianella, Maritza Paredes and Lorena Figueroa

Policies and strategies implemented to combat illegal logging in Peru appear to have had limited success. Addressing corruption in the forest sector requires an understanding of the role of political and informal power arrangements that shape individual and collective behaviours. Forest governance outcomes can only be strengthened by considering the networks, actors, powers, and interests that interact with wider conditions.

Bergen, Norway: Chr. Michelsen Institute, 2021. 25p.

By The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA)

For a decade, Vietnam has been repeatedly highlighted for its role in the international illegal wildlife trade, so it is encouraging to see the recent efforts taken by the Government to address its involvement; it is to be congratulated for the measures it has taken and the successes it has had domestically. Yet despite these efforts to tackle illegal wildlife trade in country, Vietnam’s reputation is tarnished by the fact that it is the primary destination for illegal wildlife products sourced from across Africa and shipped by criminal networks directly or indirectly to meet the demand in Vietnam and beyond. These networks are accelerating the decline of Africa’s biodiversity and are exacerbating corruption and weak rule of law in many source and transit countries in the continent.

London; Washington, DC: EIA, 2021. 32p.

By Lucy Vigne and Esmond Martin

The report ‘Myanmar’s Growing Illegal Ivory Trade with China’ released today (subs: October 2, 2018) shows that one town in particular, Mong La - a frontier town in the notorious Golden Triangle on the border of China - has experienced a ‘prolific growth’ in ivory trading. The number of new ivory items seen for sale in the town grew by 63% in three years, and now accounts for over a third of the ivory seen in the country.

The report by ivory trade specialists Lucy Vigne and Esmond Martin recounts how Chinese visitors smuggle worked ivory from Mong La back home with little concern about getting caught. This ivory has often come up the Mekong River into the lawless eastern periphery of Myanmar where it is for sale in both retail and bulk. The wholesale price for African raw ivory in late 2017 in the Golden Triangle region has remained stable at about USD 770 to USD 800 per kg since late 2015.

Myanmar has the largest captive, or ‘domestic’, elephant population in the world with over 5,000 individuals. Traders there say that the internal ivory trade is legal for trimmed domestic elephant tusk tips and from licensed animals that have died, and operate accordingly. (Trading in the tusks of the remaining wild elephants in Myanmar – numbering perhaps 2,000 – is acknowledged to be illegal). The ivory from captive elephants is used for local carving and retail sale especially in Mandalay and Yangon. Their tusks are also sold wholesale in Mandalay to Chinese traders, who smuggle them across the China border in contravention of the existing international ivory trade ban.

Traders reported that 90% of buyers were Chinese wishing to smuggle the ivory home, as also found by the same authors in market surveys in Hong Kong (2015) and Laos (2017). In Vietnam (2016) this was estimated to be 75%.

Nairobi, Kenya: Save the Elephants, 2018. 92p.

By Mary Utermohlen

"This report highlights the widespread, pervasive nature of wildlife trafficking by air, with each major world region impacted. Our analysis shows that traffickers of all types exploit the same vulnerabilities within airports, often using the same trafficking methods to circumvent law enforcement and airport authorities. Furthermore, seizure data shows that many wildlife trafficking networks rely on the same smuggling methods over time, suggesting that a thorough understanding of airport-specific or country-specific trafficking patterns could be instrumental in reducing the air transport system's vulnerability to trafficking," said the report’s author Mary Utermohlen, Program Director at C4ADS.

In addition to contributing to the extinction of endangered species, threatening local livelihoods, and undermining regional and global security, illegal wildlife trade is a risk factor for the spread of zoonotic diseases. According to the Center for Disease Control, three out of every four new or emerging infectious diseases originate in animals. Many of the species seized in air transport—including live birds, live reptiles and mammals—are high-risk carriers of zoonotic diseases and may end up in illegal or unregulated markets around the world.

Godalming, UK: Traffic, 2022. 12p.

By InSight Crime

Peru’s 70 million hectares of Amazon forest are being razed at an alarming rate. This investigation reveals the range of culprits behind the devastation: from illegal gold miners who leave behind pools of poisonous mercury, to poor locals coopted into harvesting valuable trees, to a complex web of front companies, agribusiness subsidiaries, corrupt officials and criminal groups that prosper from the Amazon’s destruction.

Conducted with the Igarapé Institute – a Brazil-based think tank devoted to development, security and climate issues – the six-part series also unravels the crucial links in the chain of specific environmental crimes contributing to forest loss, including illegal logging, illicit gold mining, coca cultivation, wildlife trafficking and the usurping of lands for cattle farms and booming agricultural industries.

Peru’s Amazon, which covers nearly half of the Andean country, is rich in biodiversity and critical to the capture of carbon, which mitigates global warming. Political instability and corruption, however, have made protecting it much more difficult. Meanwhile, demand from international markets for wood, gold and other forest products increases the threat to Indigenous communities, animal habitats and protected reserves.

Washington, DC: InSight Crime; IGARAPÉ INSTITUTE , 2022. 61p.

By Philip Rothrock, Laura Weatherer, Kate Ellis, Leah Samberg, Stephen Donofrio, Ciro Calderon

Over the past few decades, cocoa production has emerged as a driver of land use change, particularly in West Africa. In addition to its significant contributions to deforestation, cocoa production has also faced intense public scrutiny due to human rights violations, especially the use of child labor.

In Trends in the Implementation of Ethical Supply Chains: A 2020 Snapshot of the Cocoa Sector, Forest Trends’ Supply Change Initiative joined the Accountability Framework Initiative (AFi) to shed light on current trends in implementing best practice for achieving ethical supply chains across the cocoa sector. For this analysis, Supply Change researched and analyzed company sustainability commitments, production and procurement policies, and progress reporting against the common approaches for pursuing ethical supply chains outlined in the Accountability Framework.

Washington, DC: Forest-Trends, 2021. 22p.

By Sage Melcer and Simon Zadek.

A new report published today from Finance for Biodiversity (F4B) points to how to break the environmentally-destructive connection between environmental crimes and legitimate investments. F4B calls on the global financial community, working with regulators and civil society organisations, to take steps to ensure the entire financing value chain is free of environmental crimes.

Environment crime, such as illegal wildlife trade and logging, is now one of the most profitable global criminal enterprises, generating up to almost USD300 billion in criminal gains each year, and creating even more profound damage and cost to the environment and society. Many entirely legal enterprises benefit from such environmental crimes, as do those who finance them.

The report highlights the opportunity to reduce environmental crimes by widening the scope and interpretation of existing Anti-Money Laundering (AML) rules. Pointing to the limits of such an approach, however, the report highlights the need to go further, and proposes a way forward paralleling anti-slavery and conflict diamond approaches. Finally, it encourages the financial community to take leadership in advancing widely adopted and effective voluntary measures to ensuring environmental crime-free financing value chains, and points to first-mover advantages in avoiding likely reputation damage, litigation, and poorly-designed legislation.

The report is an invited contribution to the UK Government-sponsored Global Resource Initiative (GRI), a multi-sectoral taskforce mandated to provide recommendations on greening the UK’s international supply chain footprint. Its recommendations are, however, internationally applicable.

Finance for Diversity, 2022. 17p,

By Tomomi Kitade, Masayuki Sakamoto, Chris Madden Hof

Japan customs records reported 564 kg of hawksbill tortoiseshell seized in 71 incidents between 2000 and 2019, representing some 530 Hawksbill Turtles. Over half was seized between 2015 and 2019 alone. The Hawksbill Turtle is listed as “Critically Endangered” in the IUCN Red List. In recent years, the major source region appears to have shifted from Southeast Asia to the Caribbean. The report highlights the current marine turtle trade situation in Japan, including the trends in illegal commodity imports —hawksbill tortoiseshell, in particular—and an analysis of manufacturers’ stockpiles, domestic regulations, and online trade.

Tokyo: World Wildlife Fund for Japan, 2021. 16p.

By Sandra Charity and Juliana Machado Ferreira

Brazil is home to 60% of the Amazon biome and holds the planet’s largest biodiversity treasure trove, with over 13% of the world’s animal and plant life. Turtles, fish, jaguars, frogs, insects, primates, songbirds, and parrots are among a long list of wildlife in Brazil that is illegally targeted for domestic and international trade. According to the report’s analysis of trafficking in the Amazon region, river turtles, ornamental fish, fish for consumption, and wild meat appeared most frequently in seizure open data between 2012–2019.

Cambridge, UK: TRAFFIC, 2020. 140p.

By Saket Badolaand and Astha Gautam

TRAFFIC’s “HIGH FLYING: Insight into wildlife trafficking through India's airports” analysis found the trafficking of over 70,000 native and exotic wild animals, including their body parts or derivatives (weighing around 4000kg) in 140 wildlife seizure incidents at 18 Indian airports between 2011-2020. Many of the seized species are categorised as threatened on the IUCN Red List and listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Appendices, regulating its trade to protect the species from decline.

One example, the Indian Star Tortoise, is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. However, traffickers clearly disregard the threatened status and international CITES rules in Appendix I prohibiting its trade as the Indian Star Tortoise was the highest number of native species seized between 2011-2020. Among the species groups seized (including both Indian and exotic species), reptiles were the most encountered group during the study period (46%), followed by mammals (18%), timber (13%), and species from the marine environment (10%).

The highest number of native species seized included the Indian Star Tortoise, followed by the Black Pond Turtle Geoclemys hamiltonii.

The highest number of non-native species seized, Red-Eared Slider Turtle, followed by the Chinese Pond Turtle Mauremys reevesii.

Chennai International Airport, Tamil Nadu, recorded the highest number of wildlife seizure incidents, followed by Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai and Indira Gandhi Airport New Delhi. The study's findings reflect the ongoing trafficking and not an actual representation as most of the illegal wildlife trade goes unchecked and unreported.

Godalming, UK: Traffic, 2022. 12p.

By Jason Lowther, Dee Cook and Martin Roberts

The attitude of the UK's legal system towards the ever-increasing illegal wildlife trade is inconsistent. It does not adequately reflect the nature and impact of the crimes, and it is erratic in its response. The result is that the courts perceive wildlife crime as low priority, even though it is on the increase.

Godalming, UK: Traffic, 2002. 42p.

By Environmental Incentives, LLC, Foundations of Success, and ICF International

Killing protected or managed species and the illegal trade in wildlife and their related parts and products (hereafter called “wildlife crime”) are among the most severe threats to global biodiversity. Hundreds of millions of individual animals belonging to hundreds of species are the targets of illegal harvesting and trade. Wildlife crime not only threatens the survival of focal species, but may also significantly alter ecosystem function and stability when one or more species are substantially depleted or even made locally extinct. High-value wildlife products are often trafficked by organized criminal syndicates and are known to finance violent non-state actors including terrorist groups. Armed conflict can exacerbate wildlife killing and trafficking, and trafficking is frequently associated with other crimes such as money laundering (Loucks et al. 2008, UNODC 2012). Wildlife criminals create insecurity in rural communities and kill park rangers, hurting morale and recruitment of park staff and reducing tourism and associated revenue needed for conservation and community development. For developing countries, loss of revenue from trade, taxes, and/or tourism can be significant and particularly damaging (Rosen & Smith 2010). The illegal trade in wildlife can also introduce and/or spread pathogens (Gómez & Aguirre 2008), posing major risks to human and livestock health, with implications for food security, commerce, and labor productivity (i.e., Ebola virus outbreak). Despite focused efforts often lasting several decades, wildlife crime remains a global threat (Broad & Damania 2010, Sharma et al. 2014). The importance of wildlife crime as a threat to conservation and development has attracted the attention of governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), research institutions, and multilateral organizations globally. Strategies to combat wildlife crime depend on accurate and reliable knowledge,

Washington, DC: United States Agency for International Development, 2017. 76p.

By Cassie Dummett and Arthur Blundell

While subsistence agriculture and logging still contribute to deforestation, commercial-scale agricultural expansion is now recognized as by far the single largest driver of deforestation worldwide and thus also of greenhouse gas emissions from land-use change.

Several initiatives have quantified how much and where deforestation is driven by commercial agriculture, and even how much of this deforestation was driven by international trade. However, fewer analyses have been able to determine the extent to which agricultural commodities are being grown on lands that have been illegally cleared of forests. This study therefore focuses on illegal deforestation driven by agricultural expansion, and places it within the scope and scale of all tropical deforestation.

This report revisits Forest Trends’ 2014 report, by reassessing the extent of illegal agro-conversion across the tropics from 2013 to 2019, and finds a similar story: more forest land is being illegally cleared to make way for agricultural crops and pastures than ever before.

Washington, DC:Forest Trends, 2021. 81p.