Common menu bar links

Global Trends

The following are selected global trends that highlight some of the threats and opportunities that have the potential to develop within specific criminal markets. CISC Central Bureau performs ongoing environmental scans of domestic and international issues that have, and could impact criminality. Specifically, these trends provide indications as to how organized crime groups may target Canada in the future. It should be noted that none of the emerging trends identified here manifest in isolation; many are interconnected either directly or indirectly through common catalysts, common impacts, or common perpetrators. This section is not intended to provide an exhaustive analysis of global trends affecting organized crime in Canada or to detail their potential effects. Rather, these selected global trends are intended to contribute to strategic projections of emerging and future threats posed by organized crime.

Economic Crime

Electronic Money
The expanding availability and use of electronic money systems is providing organized crime with new ways to transfer value. To the extent that these new payment methods allow for high-value, anonymous transactions that are geographically unbounded and unrecorded, they facilitate money laundering as well as the sale of illicit goods. In the US, the operators of a popular gold-backed digital currency have been indicted on a variety of charges including money laundering and conspiracy. It is alleged that this e-currency was used to facilitate illegal activities ranging from credit card fraud to the exchange of child pornography.

Gold-backed digital currency is a form of electronic money denominated in gold weight.

CAROLINE MELIS, DIRECTOR GENERAL, INTELLIGENCE DIRECTORATE,
CANADA BORDER SERVICES AGENCY
“The CBSA works closely with its national and international law enforcement partners to prevent access to Canada by criminal groups intent on expanding their transnational criminal networks. As part of its efforts to ‘push the border out,’ the CBSA employs a multiple borders strategy aimed at screening high risk individuals and goods before they arrive in Canada.”

The US Dollar
The US dollar weakened significantly against other major currencies in 2007 and according to some economists, is expected to depreciate further in 2008. As a consequence, other currencies – particularly the Euro – are poised to weaken the US dollar’s dominance as the currency of choice for international remittances and payments. For instance, for the first time in 2008, a Canadian bank is offering customers the option of a Euro denominated savings account. This trend could also drive an increase in observed instances of bulk-cash transfers denominated in currencies other than Canadian and US dollars.

Environmental Crime

Electronic and Electrical Waste
The illicit trafficking and disposal of ‘e-waste’ – computers, televisions, cell phones – is driving a burgeoning environmental and human health crisis in several developing nations in Asia and, increasingly, in Africa. Criminal networks can profit by collecting e-waste in developed countries such as Canada and selling it to ‘recyclers’ in developing nations. This practice is a violation of both Canadian and international law. The United Nations estimates that the world produces approximately 50 million tons of e-waste annually, most of which is illegally exported to the developing world where virtually none of it is properly handled. This trend is expected to peak between 2009 and 2011 when millions of US and Canadian televisions will become obsolete as digital broadcasts become the norm. In addition, incorrect handling of some e-waste, such as obsolete disk drives, could be illicitly obtained by organized crime to collect and exploit government, corporate, or personal information that has not been properly deleted from these devices.

Natural Resources
Canada’s natural resources that are particularly vulnerable to poaching and criminal exploitation include: marine resources, freshwater, forests and their inhabitants. Canada has globally significant areas of large forests, representing one tenth of the world’s forested area. Canadian forests are vulnerable to illegal harvesting due to their relative abundance, isolation, and the large number of logging access roads.

Illicit Drugs

Precursors
Asia continues to be a hub for production and diversion of chemical precursors for illicit synthetic drugs. China is a major producer and exporter of active pharmaceutical ingredients, several of which are precursors required in the production of illicit drugs. According to ROTH, an investment banking and research firm, the Chinese pharmaceutical industry consists of more than 5000 producers and approximately 8700 distributors, posing significant regulatory challenges. Such insufficient monitoring resources can lead to  many of these precursors being diverted to illicit drug markets worldwide, including Canada.

Cocaine Transit via West Africa
In the past few years, strong growth in the European cocaine market has helped transform West Africa into a drug transit zone. From 2005 to 2007, approximately 33 tons of cocaine destined for European markets was seized in West Africa. Before 2005, annual seizures over the entire African continent rarely totaled more than one ton. Money earned trafficking cocaine to Europe threatens the political and economic integrity of West African nations and this large quantity of illicit funds threatens to turn them into narco-states.

Humans as a Commodity

Organ Trafficking
Throughout the West, the demand for transplantable human tissue and organs far exceeds available legitimate and regulated supply. Opportunities for possible involvement by Canadian-based organized crime groups range from importing illegally harvested organs to arranging for Canadians to travel abroad to receive them. Past international cases also included human trafficking for the purpose of organ transplantation.

CHIEF WILLIAM BLAIR, TORONTO POLICE SERVICE
“We are witnessing transnational drug production, processing and distribution networks being established in Canada on an unprecedented scale. The impact is being felt in our neighbourhoods, where the nexus between drugs, guns and gangs has become all too apparent. Driving this threat from our neighbourhoods and our shores will demand a coordinated, integrated and unrelenting effort from all of us.”

Criminal Markets - Illicit Drugs