Interpol Head Calls Transnational Organized Crime a Global Security Threat

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

Global security is at risk due to the rapid international growth of organized crime, and urged countries to act in an “urgent and coordinated” manner, warned the head of the International Criminal Police Organization or International Police (Interpol), in days prior to the General Assembly that that organization will hold in Vienna.

“We are currently facing an epidemic of transnational organized crime that is undermining societies, communities, and businesses. Its importance is such that it has become an emergency for global security,” Jürgen Stock, Secretary General of the international police agency, declared at a press conference.

Whether you are worried about gang fights on your streets, the sexual exploitation of children, forced labor, or a drug epidemic killing people in your community, what you are really worrying about is transnational organized crime.

And make no mistake – these are not just concerns in your community and in your country – this is happening globally. The Covid pandemic accelerated enormous societal changes – and nowhere is that more true than transnational organized crime.

International organized crime groups are exploiting difficult relationships between countries, they are exploiting conflicts and they are exploiting the fact that law enforcement’s investment in technology has been significantly outpaced by the criminals.

In a splintered world, a message of greater global unity is challenging – but without greater information sharing, more cooperation, and without giving every police office in every community the tools to recognize and tackle transnational organized crime, no country in the world can cope with this challenge on their own.

Criminal groups around the world are using the dark web and other tools to create a whole new business model – gone are the days of codes of silence amongst tight-knit groups; these criminal groups do not even know who they are working with and are making anonymous connections online.

They are outsourcing, creating partnerships, and bringing together different criminal activities. They are expanding markets globally while operating under the radar and often undetected, simultaneously undermining the rule of law and democracy in those countries. Part of what is alarming is that criminal groups use tools such as the hidden internet, also known as the deep web (those sites that cannot be crawled by search engines), to design innovative business models.

Interpol has also detected that transnational organized crime takes advantage of moments in which countries are in conflict, or face a crisis in their coexistence with others, and this makes it more difficult for the police to support each other internationally.

Vienna Declaration

That is why, this Monday at Interpol’s annual conference in our centenary year, we will be launching the Vienna Declaration.

This will make clear to the world’s leaders – on behalf of their police officers – that without treating this explosion, this second pandemic, this crisis of transnational organized crime as a shared, global national security crisis, none of our communities will be safe.

This epidemic can only be tackled by urgent, coordinated global action, greater cooperation between countries and regions, and by investing in shared technology. The perilous state of global security means that bringing the world together is now urgent.

The world faces many challenges – the climate crisis, geopolitical tensions, and regional conflicts and it will be tempting for leaders to hope someone else will find a solution, but that is not going to happen. We can only tackle this explosion of transnational organized crime if we all do our part.

The first duty of a state is to keep its people safe. Without unity in addressing this threat, and addressing it now, it is going to be beyond the reach of the world’s law enforcement and security agencies.

Sources Interpol, The Guardian