This text was originally published in the book Latin America in the New Global Geopolitics.
Summary
Organized crime is not only a strategic threat for Latin America, but also a serious risk for the European Union. The scale of organized crime in the American subcontinent is often beyond the capacity of governments to deal with it, threatening their institutional stability and seriously undermining coexistence in their societies. In an interconnected criminal environment on both sides of the Atlantic, violence, corruption and legal business structures are increasingly being used. To address these important challenges, it is crucial to foster bi-regional collaboration between the European Union and Latin America on security issues. This cooperation must be structural in nature and sustained over time, establishing effective coordination mechanisms to address threats common to both hemispheres, especially in relation to drug trafficking, human trafficking, money laundering, arms trafficking and cybercrime.
Keywords: Organized crime, police cooperation, security, European Union, Latin America.
Introduction
Organized crime is not only a strategic threat to Latin America, but also a serious risk to the European Union (EU), as Europe is displacing the United States (US) as the main recipient of cocaine from the South American continent. In this context, the control of organized crime over some states has important geostrategic implications, including possible alliances with totalitarian powers in their war against liberal democracies, increased migratory pressure or the challenge to security and coexistence.
Drug trafficking continues to be the main and most profitable organized crime activity worldwide, especially in Latin America. The scale of the Organized crime in the American subcontinent has reached a magnitude that often exceeds the capacity of governments to deal with it, threatening their institutional stability and seriously undermining coexistence in their societies. The world’s most violent criminal
European-Latin American Cooperation Against Organized Crime organizations are based in this region.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, in its World Drug Report 2022, states that 74% of cocaine leaves Colombia and Ecuador mainly by the Eastern Pacific route, 15% leaves Colombia by the Western Caribbean route, and 8% leaves Venezuela and Colombia by the Caribbean route.[1] An analysis of the situation in the countries most affected by this scourge reveals that organized crime has penetrated the State, political organizations and society itself.
The problem of organized crime has a political and social background that needs to be addressed beyond security policies. The inequalities, corruption and violence that affect many Latin American countries, accompanied by frequent social mobilizations and political conflicts, hinder the stability needed to implement long-term strategies that are effective in this fight. Likewise, problems such as serious macroeconomic imbalance, high external debt, uncontrolled inflation and high unemployment rates continue to fuel social conflict and political instability. Added to this is the power achieved by organized crime structures, which in many circumstances replace the State itself, permeating public administration through corruption at different levels.
This scenario creates a breeding ground for large criminal organizations to attack democracy and reject pluralism in order to exercise unchecked power and promote their criminal interests. In addition, criminal drug trafficking networks are increasing the supply of cocaine to the global market due to a notable increase in its cultivation. In an interconnected criminal environment on both sides of the Atlantic, they are increasingly resorting to violence, corruption and legal business structures, using front men to launder their illicit profits.
Europe and Latin America are natural partners, united not only by an extensive network of agreements covering most of the countries, but also by strong ties between them. The EU is the leading investor in the region, the third largest trading partner and the largest contributor to development cooperation programs. For this reason, this article briefly reviews the main cooperation initiatives that have been implemented between Europe and Latin America in the fight against organized crime, both at the multilateral level and through specific bilateral programs with those countries where the problem is particularly pressing. Finally, it addresses the bilateral cooperation that Spain maintains with several of these countries.
The Shared Security Challenge and Multilateral Cooperation
Drug trafficking is not only the most lucrative organized crime activity, but also a serious threat to Latin America and Europe, which is already displacing the U.S. as the main recipient of cocaine from that hemisphere. South America is home to some of the world’s most powerful and violent criminal organizations, which penetrate the economic, social and political fabric, corrupting its institutions.
This is indeed a global phenomenon. Fifty-eight percent of the most dangerous criminal networks operate worldwide and 35% of them are exclusively dedicated to drug trafficking, generating an illicit market in the EU with annual revenues of at least
31 billion euros, according to figures provided by Europol.[2] These networks also penetrate the legal economic circuit through money laundering. Of the almost 900 high-impact organized crime groups in the EU, nearly half are involved in drug trafficking, including money laundering.[3]
Large Latin American criminal organizations systematically resort to violence to extend their control. At times, they cooperate with each other to achieve criminal synergy, seeking to maximize their profits, with each group contributing its uniqueness, be it in the trafficking of specific substances, in control of brokers for the distribution of the merchandise, or in the laundering of proceeds obtained from their illicit activities.
This strategy also seeks to strengthen transatlantic ties with criminal organizations on the European continent in order to strengthen their capacities and expand their activities. Police cooperation operations have highlighted the connections between the Italian mafia, such as the ‘Ndrangheta, with major Colombian (Gulf Clan), Brazilian (First Capital Command) and Mexican (Sinaloa Cartel) criminal groups. In addition, relations between Albanian groups and criminal organizations operating in the border area between Ecuador and Colombia have been demonstrated in order to control the departure of large cocaine shipments to European ports, taking advantage of the absence of the state in these areas and the high level of corruption that makes criminal operations possible.
Another threat shared by the two continents is terrorism, which is often intertwined with organized crime. The presence of Hezbollah, a Shiite Islamist party and paramilitary group backed by Iran and with great influence in Lebanon, was accredited by operation Trapiche, carried out by the Brazilian Federal Police in November 2023, which uncovered a network of this group ready to attack various Jewish targets in the country. This situation confirms the thesis of the US and Israeli intelligence services on the possibility of attacks in Latin America, in addition to the risk of the region becoming a springboard of entry and logistic platform for attacks by this terrorist organization in the US. The Minister of Security of Argentina has also referred to the presence of Hezbollah in different South American countries. Among those accused in the Trapiche operation is a Lebanese nationalized Brazilian, previously convicted for drug trafficking and accused by the Argentine Prosecutor’s Office of obtaining the documentation of the terrorist commando that attacked the headquarters of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) in 1994, causing the death of 85 people.
The connection of this terrorist group with organized crime is conditioned by the need for more economic resources to finance its actions abroad. In this context, Hezbollah began its criminal activities with smuggling in the so-called Triple Border (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay) at the end of the 1980s, later expanding into drug and arms trafficking, money laundering and document forgery.
Hezbollah’s activities have also been spreading to other geographical points of the American continent, mainly favored by Iran’s political and commercial interference in strategic points of Latin America, such as the agreement signed in July 2023 by the Ministers of Defense of Iran and Bolivia to sell to this Andean country advanced technology for border control and to combat drug trafficking on the borders of Chile and Argentina.
To address these important challenges, it is crucial to foster bi-regional collaboration between the EU and Latin America on security issues. This cooperation must be structural in nature and sustained over time, establishing effective coordination mechanisms to address threats common to both hemispheres, especially in relation to drug trafficking, human trafficking, money laundering, arms trafficking and cybercrime.
In order for this cooperation to contribute to effectively increase security between the two continents, the EU is implementing various strategies in the fight against organized crime with the participation of some of its agencies. Among the many initiatives underway, the following are worth mentioning:
The Program of Assistance Against Transnational Organized Crime – PAcCTO.[4] PAcCTO is a European project with Spanish leadership, launched in 2017 and aimed at strengthening the capacities of 18 Ibero-American countries in their fight against transnational organized crime. In March 2024, the launch of the second phase of this initiative took place in Panama, to which some Caribbean countries have joined, which is scheduled to last four years and has a budget of 58 million euros.
As this is a demand-driven program, it is up to each country to determine the preferred lines of work in the process of strengthening, specializing or reforming the institutions linked to the fight against organized crime. Within the framework of this program, which provided experts for its design, in March 2022, the Declaration of Creation of the Latin American Committee on Homeland Security (CLASI) was signed in Brussels. It is a political, strategic and operational coordination mechanism for the definition and implementation of public security policies in the Latin American region. The CLASI brings together ministers from 11 countries in an informal forum for political and technical dialogue with a very concrete and operational approach against transnational organized crime. The philosophy behind this body is based on the experience of the Standing Committee on Operational Cooperation in the Field of Internal Security of the EU, which aims to intensify coordination in matters of internal security, defining strategic lines of security and the fight against organized crime.
In this regard, a joint declaration was adopted in September 2023 during a meeting in Brussels of EU interior ministers with their counterparts from CLASI member states to establish elements of commitment that will provide continuity and strengthen the relationship between the EU and CLASI in the area of security and the fight against organized crime.
The European Agency for Police Cooperation – EUROPOL.[5] This agency is a central element of the EU’s overall internal security architecture for achieving effective police cooperation and realizing an area of freedom, security and justice. One of its main objectives is to combat transnational organized crime. To achieve this purpose, it coordinates the exchange of information between national authorities and provides continuous intelligence analysis to support investigators on the ground and international cooperation to dismantle criminal networks operating on both continents.
Europol has signed strategic agreements with several countries on that continent, such as Brazil, Colombia and Chile, to strengthen relations and exchange information in the fight against transnational organized crime, enabling signatories to connect to Europol’s secure communications network (Siena), both with the agency itself and with the services of EU member states.
The European Agency for Criminal Judicial Cooperation – Eurojust.[6] It is essential that judicial authorities in both hemispheres work together to combat drug trafficking, especially by dismantling transport routes that move huge quantities of drugs and penetrate the EU, particularly through ports. In this respect, Eurojust facilitates judicial coordination and cooperation between national authorities by providing practical support to prosecutors. in the fight against cross-border crime and terrorism. With the support of this agency, drugs worth an estimated €25.5 billion were seized in 2023, which is more than double the previous year.
In July 2024, Eurojust also signed agreements with the Attorney General’s Offices of Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica and Ecuador to strengthen cooperation in the fight against drug and arms trafficking, money laundering and cybercrime, following on from the agreement signed with Panama earlier this year. These agreements will not only improve cooperation in the fight against criminal networks operating between the two continents, but will also have an undoubtedly positive impact on security, the economy and the well-being of citizens.
EU-CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) Mechanism for Coordination and Cooperation on Drugs. This cooperation mechanism was initiated in 1998, following a Spanish proposal made in 1995 when Spain presided over the EU Council, with the aim of facilitating dialogue at both the political and technical levels on drugs. It is currently the only bi-regional mechanism of its kind, demonstrating that the fight against drug trafficking is a priority for both regions.
At its XXIV High Level Meeting, held in La Paz in February 2024, the Bolivian president called for greater cooperation to help improve the exchange of information and technology to combat major criminal groups, also warning about the arrival of chemical drugs in Latin America.
European Ports Alliance. This new initiative was formally launched in Antwerp in January 2024 with the aim of preventing the infiltration of organized crime groups into port logistics centers. Ports on both sides of the Atlantic have become the main exit and entry routes for cocaine arriving on the European continent from South America. The large criminal networks involved in drug trafficking rely heavily on corruption in its various forms, such as bribery, influence peddling, etc. to facilitate their criminal activities. Therefore, the detection of criminal networks that infiltrate large port hubs is imperative due to the high number of private companies operating in port areas (such as shipping companies, cargo operators, suppliers and concessionaires). It is evident that the formation of multi-location corruption networks is an element intimately linked to the business model of these criminal groups.
One of the objectives of this Alliance is to strengthen both compliance with the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code and EU maritime security legislation by conducting port-level risk assessments and taking advantage of the security framework established by the legislation.
Programs financed by the European Union. The specific programs that the EU has been implementing for years in several Latin American countries to fight transnational organized crime are effective instruments to promote closer cooperation with the countries of that hemisphere. The following are those programs and projects that have greater continuity and strengthen cooperation relations.
• Copolad: This is a multi-country drug policy cooperation project, now in its third edition, with a budget of 15 million euros and a four-year implementation period (2021-2025)[7], which operates at both the regional and national levels through technical assistance, study visits, courses and seminars, strengthening the capacities of National Drug Observatories and supporting initiatives aimed at reducing the supply and demand of narcotics.
• Eurofront: Latin America has 35 borders with a length of more than 41,000 kilometers between its 18 countries. The remoteness of some of these border areas, their complex geography, as well as the scarce and weak surveillance cause the existence of informal border crossings that propitiate criminal phenomena such as drug trafficking, smuggling of migrants and smuggling. In this sense, the objective of this program, which began in 2020 in seven countries and has a budget of 10 million euros, is to create more secure borders, strengthening the capacities of security forces to fight more effectively against different types of cross-border crime, especially trafficking and smuggling of migrants. Eurofront is developing its activities at four pilot border points involving seven countries (Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay).[8]
• Project: Support in the fight against drugs and organized crime in Peru: Program started in 2019 for staff training. involved in criminal investigations and in which Spain plays a leading role in its implementation. The objective of the second phase of this project, currently under development, is to achieve the interoperability of the main entities involved in the investigation of crimes related to organized crime, to improve their effectiveness through the action of specialized mixed teams.
In conclusion, the cooperation programs to be implemented in Ecuador, a country that until 2022 was not on the list of Latin American countries with security problems and is currently facing a serious crisis due to the unprecedented violence of large criminal organizations, leaving part of the population defenseless, are particularly noteworthy. The Ecuasec project aims to strengthen the institutional capacities of Ecuador’s security systems in the fight against organized crime, with Spain playing a leading role in its implementation. It is also planned to create an Intelligence Center in Guayaquil, the epicenter from which many of the criminal gangs operate.
The AMERIPOL Project
The Police Community of the Americas (Ameripol) is a regional police cooperation platform whose main objectives are the exchange of police information and intelligence, joint operations and training of its members. This organization is made up of 33 police forces from 27 Latin American and Caribbean countries.[9] It also has 31 observers, mostly European organizations, including the Spanish National Police and Civil Guard, which play a very active role, as well as Interpol and Europol, which participated in the process followed for its constitution.
Ameripol began in 2007 during a meeting of Latin American security agencies in Bogota, consolidating the process a few years later, in 2012, when its statutes were approved. The backing for the organization came in November 2023, when Ameripol’s founding treaty was signed in Brasilia, granting it full international legal personality and empowering it to carry out operations autonomously, speeding up regional investigations into the various forms of organized crime. In addition, through this cooperation. The police competencies required to meet the challenges posed by organized crime to public security in the region are optimized.
Ameripol is an important milestone because, in a way, it breaks the almost endemic lack of interest of Latin American countries in strengthening a system of regional governance that can transfer a common regional position to multilateral bodies. This cooperation is especially necessary to confront transnational organized crime, which is undoubtedly global in nature and has a considerable impact on Latin America. The consolidation and establishment of this organization is an element that will contribute to overcoming the security crisis suffered by several countries in the region. The problems of information exchange and lack of trust between neighboring countries in the region, partly justified by the bad experiences of information leaked to criminal organizations, are part of the great challenges to be overcome.
The institutionalization achieved by the so-called Treaty of Brasilia less than a year ago will enable Ameripol to become the third largest police organization in the world, after Interpol and Europol, with the aim of making it an international institution in its fight against organized crime. To achieve this ambitious goal, it will be necessary to establish a joint, stable, regular and permanent collaboration framework. The conference held in October 2023 in Madrid on the consolidation of cooperation between Ameripol, Europol and Interpol provided a new and important impetus to promote and strengthen police cooperation. To give continuity to this line of action, the heads of the international cooperation services of 10 Latin American countries and Ameripol will hold, in October 2024 in Colombia, a conference organized by the Spanish Civil Guard that will contribute to institutional strengthening in this area.
Spain’s Bilateral Cooperation with Latin American Countries
Spain plays a leading role in the EU to promote not only cooperation with Latin America in security, but also its own bilateral projects. This cooperation is a priority and strategic for Spain due to the close historical and cultural ties, and is based on a long, regular and intense exercise of cooperation in matters of mutual interest, especially the repression of transnational organized crime, as well as the training and specialization of Latin American security forces.
In this regard, several elements are involved in the exercise of this cooperation:
In the institutional sphere, the Interior Councils and Attachés are deployed in all Latin American countries, either accredited only to their own country (such as Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile and Mexico) or with multi-accreditation to several countries (the Interior Council in Argentina, which has extended accreditation in Uruguay and Paraguay, or the Council of El Salvador, which has extended accreditation in Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica and Nicaragua). The work carried out by these members of the Spanish Security Forces and Corps as advisors and attachés is essential for the consolidation of institutional relations between countries, strengthening links with police organizations in the countries where they are accredited, and facilitating the exchange of information between police and security services, the holding of courses and seminars, as well as joint participation in working groups.
At a more specific level, there are cooperation instruments that contribute decisively to strengthening and promoting bilateral police cooperation relations. Thus, Spain has signed agreements on cooperation in the fight against crime and security with Colombia, Peru, Chile, Brazil and Ecuador, among others, which act as a framework for the conclusion of future administrative agreements for the development of the agreement and the joint commissions that are held alternately in each country to deal with matters of mutual interest of an operational, technical and strategic nature.
Following the conclusion of negotiations, the agreement between Spain and Bolivia is currently awaiting signature. This agreement will strengthen the exchange of operational information for the fight against drug trafficking, thus providing a solid legal framework for the police collaboration that is already taking place between these two countries. Meanwhile, agreements on this matter with Argentina, El Salvador and Costa Rica are in the process of negotiation.
Other key factors in police cooperation relations with Spain are the training and educational activities that Latin American security forces receive, either bilaterally or in EU cooperation programs, where Spain takes a leading role in several of them. Likewise, it is very common for Latin American police forces to participate in police specialization training activities, according to the interests of each country and based on the training needs of their security forces. In this context, courses, workshops and seminars, among others, are held both in Spain and in the country where the activity is required. This specialized training is provided by Spanish law enforcement agencies in areas such as criminal investigation, organized crime, border control, cybercrime and gender-based violence.
It is also worth mentioning the specific courses organized annually in Spain by law enforcement agencies for most Latin American countries, such as this year’s courses, dedicated to the fight against cybercrime and technological crimes, with the participation of heads of cybercrime investigation units of Latin American police forces.
At the EU level, Spain leads several programs, whether multi-country, such as PAcCTO or Copolad, or specific to a single country, as in Peru, where a program is being implemented for the institutional strengthening of organizations involved in the fight against organized crime. Special relations with some Latin American countries should also be highlighted, since the global relevance of some forms of crime, such as drug trafficking, underscores the need to strengthen these relations in order to effectively address these challenges.
In the case of Colombia, it is worth mentioning the operational cooperation between the Spanish Security Forces and Corps and the Colombian institutions, mainly the Colombian National Police, which is materialized through a fluid exchange of operational and intelligence information, and which is reflected in frequent actions in different areas of organized crime such as drug trafficking, human trafficking, money laundering, or the location of fugitives, among others. In addition, to facilitate this agile reciprocity, apart from the Counselor and Attaché of Interior residing there, there is a member of the Spanish National Police as liaison with the central criminal investigation and anti-narcotics units of the Colombian police.
In the case of Ecuador, the serious problems of violence that have led President Noboa to declare a state of emergency in several areas of the country have led to a change in cooperation programs with Spain. Previously, these programs, which were carried out within the framework of the PAcCTO and Eurofront, were not bilateral in nature. However, in the near future, they will be adjusted to focus specifically on Ecuador through the Ecuasec Project, which will be led by Spain with EU funds.
Likewise, at the beginning of this year and to face the serious security crisis the country is going through, Ecuador requested Spain to activate the bilateral agreement for the fight against organized crime, and the Spanish response was a firm commitment of support. To this end, a team of Spanish police officers went to Quito to train their Ecuadorian counterparts in intelligence and risk analysis related to money laundering; at the same time, Ecuadorian police officers have been receiving training in these areas in Spain. To continue this training, during the course of the year, Ecuadorian police officers will participate in additional courses on organized crime and citizen security.
In Peru, a country with which there is a Convention on the fight against crime that was signed in Madrid in 2019 and entered into force four years later, its authorities have requested a meeting of the Joint Commission for the second half of 2024 with the aim of addressing, among other issues, aspects related to the exchange of information on international drug trafficking. Likewise, in March 2023, the Renewed Strategic Alliance was signed with Chile, which prioritizes security as an essential element for exercising rights in full freedom, since the increase in organized crime is the main threat to the most disadvantaged groups, a situation that aggravates existing inequalities. In this sense, there is a high Chilean interest in the Spanish police model for the process of renovation and restructuring of its public order and security forces, in accordance with the first national policy against organized crime and the beginning of a broad update of legislation to address the threats, strengthening and modernizing its security institutions.
Conclusions
Police cooperation between Europe and Latin America acquires a strategic dimension in the current context of deteriorating global security, characterized by the increase in global drug consumption, the strengthening and expansion of drug trafficking networks, the growing ability of these organizations to penetrate power structures, and the rise of cross-border crime. All these phenomena represent common challenges for the stability of the South American region, in which Spain is considered a fundamental ally for strengthening international cooperation at both bilateral and multilateral levels. In this regard, Spain must assume a more prominent leadership role, which contributes to strengthening cooperation and security institutions to successfully address these shared risks.
Organized crime and its effect on political and social institutions, as well as the increasingly transnational nature of crime, make international cooperation and coordinated police action of a structural and sustained nature over time, with a necessary political impetus for the consolidation of effective mechanisms for collaboration and harmonization in the face of the main common threats in both hemispheres: drug trafficking, money laundering, arms trafficking, human trafficking and cybercrime.
The progressive implementation and strengthening of Ameripol, not only contributes to facilitate the exchange of operational and intelligence information among the countries of the region, overcoming the existing mistrust, but will also become the best partner for cooperation with Europe in police and security matters, strengthening and promoting the bi-regional strategic partnership. In this context, it will be necessary to urge the effective incorporation of countries such as Colombia and Brazil, not yet associated with CLASI, to ensure the effective implementation of the decisions taken within it and in the joint definition of strategies to be articulated against transnational organized crime.
In conclusion, it is essential to emphasize that, in the fight against organized crime, police action is not the only component to achieve its eradication, but that this action must be accompanied by robust social policies and programs involving education, health and development services, with the dynamism required to generate safe spaces in the most vulnerable areas, as these areas are the most prone to be co-opted by criminal gangs. In this context, cooperation between Europe and Latin America plays a crucial role.
About the authors:
Ignacio Cosidó Gutiérrez – Universidad Francisco de Vitoria
He has been Director General of the Spanish National Police. He is currently the director of the Center for the Global Common Good at the Francisco de Vitoria University.
Luis de Mergelina – Universidad Francisco de Vitoria
He is an analyst at the Center for International Security of the Francisco de Vitoria University.
Endnotes:
- United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. “World Drug Report 2022”. United Nations iLibrary, September 2022. https://www.un-ilibrary.org/content/books/9789210019545 ↑
- Press and Information Team of the EU Delegation in Chile. “An important step against organized crime: Eurojust signs Working Agreements with five Latin American countries”. European External Action Service EEAS, July 10, 2024. https://www.eurojust.europa.eu/news/important-step-against-organised-crime-eurojust-signs-working-arrangements-five-latin-american ↑
- European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation. “Decoding the EU’s most threatening criminal networks”. Europol, 2024. https://www.europol.europa.eu/publication-events/main-reports/decoding-eus-most-threatening-criminal-networks. ↑
- PAcCTO. “What is The PAcCTO?”. Europa Latinoamérica Programa de Asistencia contra el Crimen Transnacional Organizado, 2024. https://elpaccto.eu/sobre-el-paccto/que-es-el-paccto/ ↑
- Europol. “About Europol: How Europol contributes to making Europe a safer place”. Europol Europa, July 11, 2024. https://www.europol.europa.eu/about-europol:es ↑
- Eurojust. “Web Portal”. https://www.eurojust.europa.eu/ ↑
- Copolad. “Web Portal”. Programa de Cooperación entre América Latina, el Caribe y la Unión Europea en materia de política de drogas, 2024. https://copolad.eu/es/que-es-copolad/ ↑
- Eurofront. Web Portal. “Delegated Cooperation Program between the European Union and Latin America”. Eurofront, 2024. https://programaeurofront.eu/es/page/que-es-eurofront ↑
- Davis, Eduardo. “Ameripol, Latin America and the Caribbean’s new tool against organized crime”. SWI swissinfo, November 9, 2023. https://www.swissinfo.ch/spa/ameripol-la- nueva- herramienta-de-am%C3%A9rica-latina-y-el-caribe-contra-el-crimen-organizado/48957394 ↑
