Transnational Organized Crime

By Dr. Jarrod Sadulski  |  09/29/2026

Transnational organized crime groups present a real threat to national security. This type of crime is highly organized and involves crime networks that operate across different countries. Transnational organized crime involves coordination with various criminal organizations and aims to exploit the vulnerabilities of nations.

Part of my work involves conducting investigations in prisons throughout the United States and abroad to gain a deeper understanding of transnational organized crime and how it can be effectively combated. I have spoken with incarcerated cartel members, international narcotics traffickers, and other members of criminal groups who have shared details about international criminal enterprises.

The Effects of Transnational Organized Crime

Transnational organized crime adversely impacts the democracy of nations and is a multi-billion-dollar industry that generates billions of dollars of illicit revenue every year. Criminal networks exploit economic vulnerabilities in different parts of the world. For example, these networks are known to recruit vulnerable people through the promise of wealth and power.

Terrorist groups engage in organized crime to fund their operations or advance their objectives and ideology. The global demand for illicit goods also fuels global organized crime.

Transnational criminal organizations thrive on weak governance and illicit international trade, and they commonly use bribes and corruption to foster transnational crime. For instance, corruption may involve paying off government officials to permit unlawful activity, leading to the corruption of entire governments.

To further their illicit enterprise, transnational criminal networks commonly participate in political violence, threaten terrorism, and rely on intimidation of the public and government officials.

Transnational organized crime groups typically diversify their illicit activities, which can include:

• Narcotics trafficking
• Arms trafficking
• Online fraud
• Exploitation of conflict zones
• Forced labor and illicit manufacturing
• Counterfeit medicines
• Extortion

Money Laundering and Transnational Organized Crime

Money laundering is often associated with transnational criminal organizations. Proceeds from their crimes are often laundered through cash businesses, small deposits designed to avoid detection by banking systems, and casinos controlled by these organizations. To avoid detection, money laundering in criminal organizations often involves the use of shell companies and cryptocurrency.

Transnational organized crime frequently involves money laundering and cybercrime, which help to fund criminal operations. These crime groups may exploit weak financial system tracking and use offshore accounts to conceal illicit proceeds. The anonymity associated with cryptocurrency has also been exploited by transnational crime groups.

How Transnational Organized Crime Uses Encrypted Communications

Transnational organized criminal groups commonly use encrypted communication to conceal illicit activity and evade international law enforcement. Advances in technology have further enhanced criminals’ ability to encrypt their messaging.

These criminals also use cloud data to manage financial ledgers, logistics, and operational details associated with transnational crime. For example, cartels bring contraband across U.S. borders and then depend on U.S. criminal networks to help facilitate activities such as narcotics trafficking, human trafficking, and other crimes.

Cartels depend on communication with the criminal networks within the United States to ensure that they are paid and maintain control over operations. In one field investigation I conducted with a current Mexican cartel member incarcerated in Central America, he shared that communication among lower-tier criminal networks occurs via email.

This cartel member explained that someone in an organized crime group writes instructions in the draft folder of an email account. Instead of transmitting the email over the internet and risking detection, the username and password are shared with the next person in the organized crime chain.

That person logs into the email account, reads the instructions in the draft folder, and deletes the draft. He pointed out that this communication method was used to move firearms internationally.

Smuggling and Human Trafficking in Transnational Organized Crime

Organized crime groups commonly exploit international smuggling routes and move contraband over the high seas, across porous national borders, and through legitimate transportation systems such as commercial shipping. These methods are often used for drug trafficking.

Human traffickers are also a typical part of transnational crime groups. Victims are lured by recruiters to another country or region through false promises of employment or opportunity.

Once victims are in a vulnerable location, they are often pressured to participate in some type of forced labor. They may be threatened with physical harm to themselves or their families in their home country. Organized crime groups also transfer trafficking victims to other crime groups to earn a profit.

Migrant smuggling also commonly involves transnational criminal networks. Migrants are typically smuggled across long distances, and the route is controlled by different crime groups who work in concert with one another.

For example, migrants smuggled into the United States typically pass through areas referred to by the cartels as plazas. Different cartels control different plazas based on the region. Smugglers typically force migrants to pay a “plaza tax” to move through a particular cartel-controlled area.

Coyotes (smugglers loyal to a criminal network) are embedded within migrant groups smuggled to the United States. In some cases, these coyotes identify people who do not have enough money to pay for unexpected expenses such as additional bribes or problems associated with weather delays.

When a coyote indicates that a migrant is unable to pay, that migrant is sold to human trafficking rings that work in conjunction with smugglers.

Combating Transnational Organized Crime

Transnational organized crime groups are well funded and highly organized. To combat transnational organized crime, international cooperation and coordination among intergovernmental law enforcement organizations is very important.

Collective responses among foreign partners are often necessary to engage in international anti-money laundering operations and dismantle the financial systems used by organized criminal groups. Organized criminal groups also cannot function without access to their illicit proceeds and financial resources, which is why law enforcement agencies work to disrupt their funding through techniques such as asset forfeiture.

Furthermore, combating transnational organized crime requires intelligence sharing, training, and technical assistance. Technical assistance may be needed to intercept the communication systems used by these groups.

When intelligence efforts and law enforcement infiltrate communication systems, the illicit activities of criminals are exposed. As a result, those crimes can lead to successful investigations and prosecutions.

Through my anti-human trafficking work in developing regions of Central America, I have seen firsthand the level of exploitation and control organized crime groups exert over vulnerable populations. For example, criminal groups may force business owners to pay routine extortion fees to operate their businesses in areas controlled by gangs, cartels, and transnational criminal organizations.

Local residents who live and work in areas where police officers are not effective in stopping extortion are especially at risk. Failure to pay bribes and extortion fees to these criminal groups can result in their business buildings being burned. Business owners and their families are also at significant risk of violence. Judicial systems in these areas need to take a more active role in prosecuting extortion and other criminal activities to protect human rights and foster economic development.

How International Organizations Combat Transnational Organized Crime

To combat transnational organized crime, international cooperation among global networks such as the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) is essential. INTERPOL combats global organized crime by sharing valuable intelligence among the international law enforcement community.

Also, INTERPOL provides an avenue for the surveillance of crime groups that operate globally and financial investigations into these groups. The European Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) also aids in combating international crime within the European Union.

Similarly, the United Nations also assists with combating transnational criminal networks. For instance, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime provides valuable training. The United Nations also created the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime to encourage nations to take a proactive role in combating organized crime.

United Nations efforts have addressed human trafficking and drug abuse while also supporting the development of laws to combat these crimes. The United Nations also offers mutual legal assistance to help countries deal with transnational criminal networks. This mutual legal assistance involves countries supporting others by:

• Helping to seize assets used by criminal groups
• Assisting in investigations

Strategies to combat transnational organized crime must include improving the legal frameworks of nations and strengthening international cooperation. While technology enhances organized crime, it can also be used to combat it.

The Future of Efforts to Combat Transnational Organized Crime

As transnational organized crime groups continue to exploit technology, financial systems, and international borders, efforts to combat these criminal organizations must continue to evolve to protect against this significant threat. Stronger international cooperation, intelligence sharing, financial investigations, and effective legal frameworks can help law enforcement agencies disrupt criminal networks and protect vulnerable populations. Continued collaboration among nations will remain essential as organized crime groups adapt their methods and expand their reach.

The Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice at APU

For students who want to study various aspects of criminal justice, American Public University part of American Public University System (“APU”) offers an online Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice. This degree program enables adult learners to take courses that cover a wide variety of topics, including criminal investigation, the criminal legal process, criminal law, and constitutional law. Other courses include U.S. law enforcement and ethics in criminal justice.

The program offers four concentrations that allow students to focus their studies in different areas of criminal justice:

• Entrepreneurship
• Organizational Law Enforcement Leadership
• Maritime Law Enforcement
• General

For more information, visit APU’s security and global studies degree program page.

Note:This degree program is not designed to meet the educational requirements for professional licensure or certification in any country, state, province, or other jurisdiction. This program has not been approved by any state professional licensing body and does not lead to any state-issued professional licensure.