"The International Crime Threat Assessment" is the first declassified version of the report, compiled by the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Treasury Department, which have joined to develop a national strategy to fight international crime and reduce its impact.
"Foreign criminals operating abroad and in the United States cost Americans their lives and cost Americans billions of dollars. They also threaten our foreign policy and national security goals by undermining emerging democracies and distorting free markets in countries around the world," said Richard Clarke, national coordinator for Security Infrastructure Protection and Counterterrorism.
Federal officials characterized criminal cartels – which have hubs in Nigeria, southeast Asia and the former Soviet Union – as technologically sophisticated enterprises involved in crimes including computer hacking, alien smuggling, drug trafficking, counterfeiting and financial fraud.
They described the cartels as groups generally of the same ethnic or family background, with leadership seeking to make money even if it means corrupting government officials "so thoroughly and utterly" that "it is no longer possible to distinguish between the two," the report said.
While some governments such as Colombia have been open to assisting the United States, others have openly engaged in crime, Clarke said.
"Colombia, here in this hemisphere, has put its own law enforcement personnel and government officials at risk in order to cooperate with us," Clarke said. "But then there are governments like Afghanistan, which are engaged in the smuggling of heroin and the harboring of terrorists.
"And, you know, governments such as Afghanistan, I think, have to be considered criminal organizations because they are engaged in criminal activity as a government. So there's a wide variety of cooperation, from a great deal to active hostility."
The 128-page report identified the factors fueling the escalation in transnational crime and how it is likely to affect the United States over the next 10 years.
The report said customs officials working at U.S. borders seized 73 metric tons of cocaine from South America; 875 kilograms of heroin, most of which flowed into the country from Asia, Mexico and Colombia; 3.5 million ecstasy tablets, mostly produced in the Netherlands and shipped to Europe; and 536 metric tons of marijuana, most of which came from Mexico.
Smuggling of human cargo in the form of illegal aliens – mostly women and children – has skyrocketed, it said. Government officials estimate that 700,000 illegal aliens are brought into the United States annually, many of them destined to a life in sweatshops or forced prostitution. Customs officials say cartels dealing in the alien smuggling often hide their "cargo" in crates or storage containers and ship them into the country undetected.
"The magnitude in terms of human suffering is demonstrated by the fact that in one year 700,000 women and children were forcibly moved by international criminal cartels around the world engaged in prostitution and kidnapping," Clarke said.
That fact, Clarke said, prompted officials to form a center in the state department dedicated to combating the trafficking in women and children and alien-smuggling.
Advances in telecommunications and information systems, liberal economic trade, the globalization of business and an explosion in international travel have helped promote crime, the report stated.
"They can use interactive capabilities of advanced computers and telecommunications systems to plot marketing strategies for drugs and other illicit commodities, to find the most efficient routes and methods for smuggling and moving money in the financial system, and to create false trails for law enforcement or banking security," the report said.
Additionally, the cartels use financial experts to identify money laundering mechanisms, to manage investments and establish covers for fraud schemes. And they retain lawyers skilled in manipulating the judicial system and influence law enforcement legislation in countries around the world, officials said.
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