The Index

Montenegrin organized crime groups have risen through the criminal underworld to become key components of the global cocaine trade. From Latin America to global shipping, and from ports to European markets, they control the entire chain. But with such a lucrative trade comes violence. Over the last decade, several dozen Montenegrins and Serbians have been killed across Europe in a bloody feud betw...

The gold mining sector in West Africa has increased significantly in recent years. But this is also a region bereft by political instability following several recent coups, extremist groups, foreign criminal actors and organized crime networks all operate here, artisanal and small-scale miners are often targeted by such groups. According to the Global Organized Crime Index, there are high levels o...

Papua New Guinea, the island nation in Oceania, is rich in biodiversity. But the rainforests that cover the country are also sought after by logging companies, sometimes illegally. PNG is the largest exporter of timber to China, where it is then distributed around the world. There are a number of criminal markets that are particularly prevalent in PNG - financial crimes, human trafficking, non-ren...

The small Caribbean nation of Haiti has seen a surge in gang violence over the past few years. According to the Global Organized Crime Index, there is a high level of mafia-style groups (8.5 out of 10). These gangs have captured large swathes of the economy. With names like G-Pep, 400 Mawozo, Baz Pilate, and G9, these gangs compete for control, leading this conflict to be described as the "world’s...

The Global Organized Crime Index features two new indicators - Cybercrime and Financial Crimes. In this episode Thin sits down with the Head of Cyber Threat Intelligence at Chainalysis, Jacqueline Koven, to discuss a topic that straddles both of these indicators, money laundering through cryptocurrency. According to Chainalysis, nearly $23.8 billion dollars’ worth of cryptocurrency was laundered i...

The assassination of Ecuadorean presidential candidate, Fernando Villavicencio in August this year made international headlines. A campaigner who railed against organized crime and corruption, his murder in Quito was one act in a downward spiral of violence in Ecuador. Local gangs and international criminal organisations have increased their influence in politics, worsening already low-public trus...

Myanmar in Southeast Asia topped the global list for levels of criminality (8.15/10) in the latest Global Organized Crime Index. From arms trafficking (9/10) to the synthetic drugs trade(10/10), and mafia-style groups (9.5/10) to state-embedded actors (9/10), Myanmar has high levels almost across the board for criminal markets and actors. The country is also resource rich - gold, jade, precious st...

The category of 'Financial Crime' is to be added to the upcoming version of the Global Organized Crime Index. In this bonus episode Thin sits down with Nick Lewis, the Global Head of Integrated Intelligence and Investigations at Standard Charter Bank, to discuss the difficulties of financial crime investigations and what is needed to improve the situation. Presenter : Thin Lei Win Speakers: Nick L...

What are financial crimes? Once called 'White Collar Crimes', the term 'financial crimes' covers a broad range of forms of criminality - from financial fraud to tax evasion, and from illicit financial flows to money laundering. It is so often considered a victimless crime, but in reality that could not be further from the truth. Whether its a corrupt politician siphoning public money away and into...

Do you ever think about where the chair you are sitting on came from? Or perhaps the electronic device you are using to listen to this podcast, where does the metals come from? The illegal extraction of non-renewable resources, like gold, timber, and rare earth minerals, has become a very lucrative and widespread criminal sector across the world – but it is particularly prevalent in natural-resour...

For a long time the relationship between Africa and illicit drugs was little explored in comparison to other parts of the world – often seen as little more than a transit region for drugs going to other places – usually Europe. But our understanding has grown over recent years, as have the domestic markets for illicit drugs. In this episode we study the markets of East and Southern Africa, answeri...

Mexico has long had a relationship with organized crime. The cartels and the war on drugs have been the subject of countless documentaries and popular dramatized television series. The images of extreme violence have been broadcast all over the world and the journalists that report on these events are often targeted for the work they do. But there is a counter balance to the violence and that's th...

The small country of Tunisia was the origin of the Arab String, a wave of protests swept across North Africa and the Middle East in 2011. Over the proceeding decade Tunisia was hailed as one of the few that was able to make a peaceful transition. But over the last few years things have taken a turn for the worse, exemplified by an 11% turnout for the latest elections. According to Organized Crime...

China's 'One Child Policy' was designed to curb an exploding population in 1980 with little thought given to the demographic impact this would have in the future. There have been many knock-on effects, including a huge gender imbalance. This in turn has made some Chinese men look to neighbouring countries, like Cambodia, in an effort to find a wife, fuelling an illicit market in what is known as '...

Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, IUU Fishing, is a multi-billion dollar industry with links to modern slavery, corruption, environmental destruction, weak governance, complex corporate structures, illicit financial flows, tax abuse and financial secrecy - which makes it a perfect environment for transnational organized criminal networks to operate. In this episode Thin is joined by two...

Over the past three years, Insight Crime have been investigating the relationship between the cocaine trade and Venezuela. Part of this investigation focuses in on the role of the state – some state actors who are actively involved, other senior state actors who allow and enable the cocaine to flow. According to the Global Organized Crime Index – Venezuela sits 18th out of 193 countries around the...

How has organized crime changed between 2019 and 2021 on the African Continent? This huge continent boasts a wealth of natural resources, biodiversity and a young population. But Africa is also a key source and transit hub for illicit goods and behaviour - from human trafficking to arms smuggling and from the illegal wildlife trade to environmental crimes. In this episode Thin talks with Julian Ra...

Ukraine has long been considered one of the largest arms trafficking markets in Europe, even before the current conflict. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, large stockpiles were left and fell into the hands of ordinary citizens, some were trafficked from Ukraine to the rest of Europe and beyond. In this episode Thin will be asking the questions - how has the conflict affected the smuggling o...

The Mekong Region spans six countries - China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. This fertile land is rich in biodiversity, home to rare, threatened, and endemic species of animals and plants as well as pristine forests - but its also a global epicentre for environmental crimes and its having a devastating impact on local on local ecosystems. How has the Mekong region become such a hu...

In 1992, Giovanni Falcone, a prominent anti-mafia judge was assassinated by the Cosa Nostra in Sicily. His death galvanised the country who demanded more action against mafia groups. Over the years since Falcone's murder, Italy has developed a strong legislative framework against organised crime. Now there are multiple agencies who deal with this phenomenon and a strong and thriving civil soc...

The interesting case of Italy. Our view of the mafia has been distorted over the years by countless Hollywood movies. The reality is very different. Today, Italian mafia groups are entrenched in both the legal and illegal economy of the country. You may have heard of some of them, like the Camorra, ‘Ndrangheta or Cosa Nostra – but there are others like the Sacra Corona Unita or the Familia Basilis...

For millennia Syria was at the heart of empires, but today the country has become synonymous with war. Since the Arab Spring of 2011 , the country has been in a state of civil war with competing armed actors with different aims and allegiances battling one another leaving staggering human misery in their wake. The Syrian civil war has also created a perfect brewing pot for illicit activities, from...

In early 2022, a small peaceful protest over rising fuel prices began in the large Central Asian country of Kazakhstan . In under a week the protest had spread across the country and turned violent. President Tokayev ordered the national forces to " shoot to kill, without warning ” - at the end of the day at least 180 people were killed and thousands were injured. How did the peaceful protest over...