Blog

At their meeting this week, the G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors should endorse the adoption of global beneficial ownership registries to help end illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing and other forms of environmental crime that are enabled by complex corporate structures.  In an unprecedented year for climate action, the…

The ongoing armed conflict in Ukraine has birthed novel human rights challenges. Since 2014, the country has been engaged in one of the longest-standing conflicts in Europe. This unrest has led to the establishment of internal-borders and national checkpoints, obstructing citizens freedom of movement. These barriers are purportedly designed to safeguard…

The American Rescue Plan addresses the root cause of zoonotic pandemics like Covid-19 by clearly signalling that illegal wildlife trade (IWT) is an international security threat. On Thursday, 11 March, President Joe Biden signed into law the American Rescue Plan, a $1.9 Trillion pandemic relief and stimulus law for the US…

In February 2021, as a result of an operation involving the decryption of Sky ECC, a communications system used by organised crime organisations, customs authorities in northern Europe collectively seized the largest cocaine shipment ever recorded. German officials seized a total of 16 tonnes of cocaine disguised in wall filler at the port of…

Jamaica’s criminal trajectory has long stimulated the curiosity of criminologists and policy makers, and now, we are beginning to see how pervasive the crime-politics nexus is and the ways in which it gave rise to criminal gangs in the country. In Kingston, the construction of a public housing complex and…

It must have been July 27th, 2012 or at the latest 2013, in Limbadi, a small town in the Vibonese province in Calabria, that on this day every year celebrates the patron Saint. When the Saint exits the church, I am sure that many – including myself – are wondering…

To date, female actors within organised crime structures have remained invisible. With the exception of well-known women who have inherited illicit businesses and operations from their jailed or deceased male family members – such as Mexicans Clara Elena Laborín Archuleta, wife of Héctor Beltrán Leyva (arrested in 2014), or Enedina Arellano Félix,…

Police are not police and the law is not the law everywhere, one must be reminded, as I strolled through the hallowed centrepiece of Interpol’s Lyonnais HQ, having transposed myself from Singapore to assist in the presentation of a global gathering of law enforcement and others. This was quite a few years after leaving…

As the UK establishes its post-Brexit independent sanctions regime, the potential to use sanctions against serious and organised crime has attracted growing attention. To add value, any move in this direction requires a clear strategy as to how sanctions would complement existing law enforcement tools. Recent months have seen the…

Following the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) declaration of the Covid-19 pandemic in March, Italy was one of the first countries to implement extreme measures in an attempt to contain the drastic impact of the pandemic. With the domestic health system on the verge of collapse, restrictions to movement were imposed across the…