The Index

Criminal groups that once focused primarily on the cocaine trade are now diversifying into illegal gold mining, logging, and the wildlife trade - activities that are devastating the environment.

The Amazon’s tri-border region (where Brazil, Colombia, and Peru meet) has become a hotbed for trafficking. The neighboring cities of Leticia and Tabatinga lie at its center, caught in a violent turf war between Brazil’s two largest criminal organizations: the Red Command and the PCC. Both are vying for control of the Amazon’s highly profitable illicit markets.

Speaker: Gabriel Funari, Amazon Basin Coordinator at GI...

Organized criminal gangs were deployed by politicians to counter peaceful protests in Nairobi in June, triggering worries of violence in Kenya ahead of the 2027 general elections.

On June 25, gangs unleashed terror on people, who took to the streets in a peaceful march to commemorate the lives of 60 people who were killed one year earlier, in a historic Gen Z uprising against punitive taxes. Just a week earlier, on June 18, gangs had also violently confronted protesters demanding justice for Alfred Ojwang, a 31-year-old teacher and political blogger who died in police custody. While mainstream media calls them "hired...

Celso Gamboa Sanchez, a former security minister and judge from Costa Rica, was arrested in June 2025 on international drug-trafficking charges. He denies the allegations.

What makes the arrest interesting is that the federal indictment filed by the US included a request for his extradition. This is something which was only made possible in May 2025 when Costa Rica's constitution was amended so that nationals could be extradited to the US (or other countries with bilateral agreements) on in international drug trafficking and terrorism charges.

Costa Rica has long been seen as one of the more "stable"...

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, cyber scams have surged across the Mekong region. Abandoned casinos and hotels have been turned into “scam compounds” serving as bases for romance scams, fake call centres, Ponzi schemes, and voice-phishing operations. These schemes have tricked hundreds of people to transfer money into mule accounts.

But the problem goes far deeper. Criminal networks are profiting from tax evasion, smuggling, and large-scale embezzlement.

In 2024, Vietnamese billionaire Truong My Lan was sentenced to death (since converted to life in prison) for embezzling $12 billion from the Saigon Commercial Bank.

But what’s drivin...

Underworlds with Mark Shaw is returning for another season.

Mark sits down with authors to discuss their investigations into the murky world of organized crime.

In season two, we hear about a range of stories such as money laundering and cryptocurrency; the 'Ndrangheta's expansion from Calabria, Italy to other countries of Europe.

Also the story of a leading South African police officer, who was tasked with investigating the Italian mafia in South Africa by Nelson Mandela.

A fascinating story about one of the largest frauds in the history of the maritime...

Millions of unregistered firearms, surging drug addiction, and cross-border trafficking have turned Pakistan into a hotspot for organized crime. Corruption and economic instability have allowed illicit markets — from heroin to weapons — to flourish.

Terrorist groups like the Tehrik-e-Taliban are thriving in this landscape, carrying out deadly attacks and deepening insecurity.

And in the midst of this unrest, a suicide bombing in Pahalgam that killed 26 Indian tourists has reignited military tensions with India — adding fuel to the long-standing conflict over Indian-administered Kashmir.

According to the OC Index, arms trafficking in Pakistan is only getting worse...

The full-scale war in Ukraine has been raging for three years now. One of the defining military developments during this conflict has been the use of drones. And both sides have utilised them with devastating effect.

These include the small drone operators dropping bombs on unsuspecting troops to the Iranian-designed Shahed kamikaze drones smashing into residential buildings in Ukrainian cities.

In Russia, where many people have been drafted into the military, the country has seen a labour shortage in key industries that support its war machine. One such industry is the manufacture of Shahed drones...

In August 2024, King Mohammed VI pardoned over 4800 Cannabis farmers in Morocco. This came as part of the country’s wider legalization efforts to tap into the economic potential of the booming global cannabis market.

Morocco is one of the world's leading cannabis producers, and in 2021 it approved a bill regulating cannabis cultivation for medical, pharmaceutical and industrial purposes.

According to the Global Organized Crime Index, this step towards better regulation has contributed to Morocco’s increased resilience score for National Policies and Laws from 6.0 to 6.5.

However, the vast majority of Morocco's territorial areas of c...

In Canada, Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs, often referred to as a "1%" Club, include infamous names like the Hells Angels, The Outlaws, Bandidos.

The Hells Angels are reported to have over 450 chapters across almost 60 countries around the world – many of those are in Canada.

According to Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the RCMP, Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs, are involved in a range of illicit markets – fraud, counterfeiting, money laundering, extortion, corruption, drug trafficking, illicit firearms trafficking, violence and murder.

According to the Global Organized Crime Index, Canada has very high levels of resilience to organized crime, with a sc...

In August police in Vietnam uncovered an infant trafficking ring which had purchased and resold at least 16 infants, ages ranging from just days to a few months old, leading to further investigations that uncovered 84 suspected trafficking cases across 32 provinces.

In this episode, we delve into the harrowing realities of human trafficking in Vietnam. For more than two decades the country has been a source, destination, and transit point, with a troubling score of 7 out of 10 on the Global Organized Crime Index. Criminal actors involved include local recruitment agencies, family members and acquaintances of victims, and foreign actors...

The 'Marengo Trial' lasted years, finally resulting in multiple convictions of the so-called Mocro Mafia, including one of its most infamous leaders, Ridouan Taghi, who was convicted of murder among other things.

Who are the Mocro Mafia? They were born out of the Dutch-Moroccan community in the Netherlands during the 90s, starting with the smuggling of hashish before moving onto the much more profitable cocaine. Its estimated that they control up to a third of the cocaine market in Europe. But they have also left a trail of destruction in their wake, journalists and lawyers have been...

When we think about the global drugs trade – countries like Colombia and Mexico often come to mind. But according to the Global Organized Crime Index, the country that sits just behind those two is Paraguay. In fact, Paraguay sits 4th globally for levels of criminality, with 7.52 out of 10.

It has really high scores for illicit markets like arms trafficking (9), counterfeit goods (9), Cocaine (8.5), and Cannabis (9). But then if we look at Criminal Actors within the OC Index, again, Paraguay scores incredibly highly across the board, for example state-embedded actors are at 9 out of 10, alongside foreign criminal actors. Overall, it...

Welcome to Underworlds with Mark Shaw.

Organized Crime is everywhere, hidden in plain sight. The stories from this world have been mythologised by Hollywood. But the reality can be even stranger and more exciting than fiction.

From the golden age of the American mafia (La Cosa Nostra), to the modern-day cocaine empires, and from the shadowy links between organized crime and terrorism, to the twilight of the Yakuza.

In this series Mark Shaw, the Director of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime delves into non-fiction books about organized crime and the illicit...

Ivory poaching is a problem wherever we find elephants, and that is no different in India. The ivory taken from the Asian elephants has long been prized in both traditional Chinese medicine and also ivory artefacts.

According to the Global Organized Crime Index, India has low score for Criminal Actors (4.8), but scores highly for Criminal Markets (6.7), where it sits 16th globally. Ivory poaching falls into the category of Fauna Crimes, here India scores 7.0 out of 10, that places the country 25th globally.

But India also has the highest levels of Resilience (5.42) to organized crime in South...

Ukraine (9/10) and Russia (8.5/10), alongside the former Soviet states of Moldova and Belarus, have some of the highest scores for arms trafficking in the Global Organized Crime Index.

This is due to the significant levels of weapons and ammunition left over at the end of the Soviet period.

In addition to the high levels of arms trafficking across this part of Europe, Central and Eastern Europe has the highest scores for state-embedded actors on the European continent (Russia, 8.5/10; Ukraine, 8/10).

Since Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Western nations have sent weapons to...

The Netherlands is an important global trading hub, with Rotterdam being one of the worlds largest container ports in the world. The country's high quality infrastructure and the well known liberal approach to drugs makes the Netherlands attractive to organized criminal groups. And those originating in the Western Balkans have long been active in the Netherlands.

According to the Global Organized Crime Index, the Netherlands has high levels of foreign criminal actors with 6 out of 10 - an increase of 1.50 in just two years – only Bangladesh and Afghanistan have seen larger increases.

Alongside that, the levels of...

The largely unregulated taxi industry in South Africa has long been associated with violence., as taxi associations clash with one another over control of lucrative routes. Taxi-related violence ranges from shoot-out at taxi ranks to targeted hits on influential players in the industry, often sparking retaliatory killings, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of taxi operators and innocent bystanders.

According to the Global Organized Crime Index, mafia-style groups such as those operating in the taxi industry, are a prevalent criminal actor in South Africa - with a score of 7.5 out of 10, placing the country 5th out of 54...

In March this year, gangs of armed men on motorcycles descended on a school in north-western state of Kaduna in Nigeria, kidnapping over 280 children. In the same week a similar mass kidnapping took place in the north-eastern state of Borno.

Over the past few years, kidnappings have been a real issue in Nigeria, but have recently been in decline.

So, who is behind these kidnappings? And why are they targeting these communities?

Kidnappings have contributed to the rise in extortion and protection racketeering in Nigeria, according to the Global Organized Crime Index, it...

Brazil has long had a problem with mafia-style groups, according to the Global Organized Crime Index, with 8 out of 10, that places the country 3rd in South America.

One such group are the so-called militias, made up of former and serving members of military police or law enforcement. The militias groups have sought to profit from the housing market , with many residents facing the threat of violence, and even expulsion from their homes. Alongside this, militias have seeped into other markets, controlling access to utilities such as water, electricity and internet connectivity.

According to the Global...

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 between two criminal groups - the Škaljari clan and the Kavač Clan, both originating from the small Adriatic town of Kotor.

According to the Global Organized Crime Index, Montenegro ranks 5th in terms of...

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 of criminality across the region in non-renewable resource crimes, the category which illegal gold mining falls under. Burkina Faso reaches 8.5 out of 10; Mali, 8 out of 10.

Whereas Resilience levels across the region are low, but particularly...

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-renewable resource crime. But in this episode, we will focus on illegal logging, because Papua New Guinea sits second globally for flora crimes at 8.5 out of 10.

Presenter: Thin Lei Win

...

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 most dangerous gang war".

Haiti has the highest levels of criminality in the Caribbean. Arms trafficking, human trafficking, cocaine trafficking, and financial crimes are all over 7.5 out of...

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 in 2022, a 68% increase on the previous year.

Presenter: Thin Lei Win

Guest: Jacqueline Koven, the Head of Cyber Threat Intelligence at Chainalysis.

Links:

Russia country profile

North Korea country pr...

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 trust in state institutions.

Over the course of two years, according to the Global Organized Crime Index, Ecuador’s criminality score has risen sharply, and globally it now sits 11th, levels of resilience fared no better and have dipped significantly.

In th...

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 stones, and rare earth minerals, essential to the technologies driving the green transition around the world. But, this mining industry is controlled by armed groups, the ruling military government, and predatory companies, who exploit workers, poison the environment, violently crack down...

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 Lewis (OBE), Global Head at Integrated Intelligence and Investigations at Standard Chartered Bank and also the Managing Director for its High Risk Client Unit for conduct, financial crime and compliance...

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 tax havens, or unscrupulous financial institutions aiding the laundering of vast sums of illicit money - financial crimes cost the global economy trillions of dollars.

In the new iteration of the...

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-resource rich South America, which scores highest for non-renewable resource crimes.

Organized criminal groups with their origins in drug trafficking have become part of this illicit market, and as a result th...

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, answering questions like: Are drugs limited to coastal regions? Do they penetrate the interior of this huge continent? Where does this region fit into the global drugs trade?

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 the brave and courageous civil society actors that battle extreme odds in an attempt to make life better. Sinaloa in Mexico was the birthplace of The Resilience Fund, which identifies...

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 Index, Tunisia has low levels of criminality but the current political situation has rang alarm bells and according to recent research from the GI-TOC migration from...

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 'bride trafficking'.

The organized criminal networks that run these trafficking routes often trick women and girls with promises, but trap them, restrict their movements, threaten them with violence, forcing them...

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 experts to discuss the impact of IUU fishing in the region of Oceania, which covers Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islanders - a region that relies in the fisheries industry.

Presenter: Thin Lei Win

...

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 world for levels of criminality. And is one of only 16 countries that scored NINE or higher out of ten when it comes to state-embedded actors playing a role in illegal activities.

In t...

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 Rademeyer, the Director of the Civil Society Observatory of Illicit Economies in East and Southern Africa at the GI-TOC.

Presenter: Thin Lei Win

Speakers:

Julian Rademeyer...

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 of weapons? And how will it continue to do so in the future?

Presenter: Thin Lei Win

Speakers:

Prof. Mark Galeotti, Principal Director of...

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 hub of environmental crimes? What is fuelling them? And how can we effectively fight them?

Presenter: Thin Lei Win

Speakers:

Trang Nguyen, founder and executive...

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 society.

According to the Global Organized Crime Index, Italy is just one of nine countries around the world that has very high levels of criminality, but also has very high levels of resilience.

In P...

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 Basiliski, not to mention the Nigerian mafia or the Western Balkans criminal syndicates.

According to the Global Organized Crime Index, Italy has very high levels of criminality, but...