Under the Shadow: Illicit Economies in Iran

11/10/20 • 48 min

In this podcast, Jack is looking at the latest Global Initative Against Transnational Organized Crime report called 'Under the Shadow: Illicit Economies in Iran', which looks at how the illicit economy has become intertwined within the licit economy of the Iranian State.

Speakers

Alexander Soderholm, an international drug policy field researcher with a focus on Iran and the Middle East.

Katherine Bauer, a Senior Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former US Treasury official.

Naysan Rafati, the Senior Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group

Speakers

Alexander Soderholm, an international drug policy field researcher with a focus on Iran and the Middle East.

Katherine Bauer, a Senior Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former US Treasury official.

Naysan Rafati, the Senior Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group

Previous Episode

Extortion in the Northern Triangle

In the Northern Triangle countries of Central America - Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, extortion is so pervasive that it has been called “A way of life”.

The growth in extortion in the region was defined by the expansion of street gangs MS13 and Barrio 18. They have a stranglehold on the countries in which they operate, extorting rich and poor and even international corporations.

The revenue from extortion has provided gangs in the region with a solid economic operating base, and at the same time allowed them to diversify into other criminal enterprises – they are now transnational organized criminal groups.

Presenter: Jack Meegan-Vickers

Speakers:

1. Guillermo Vazquez del Mercado Almada, Senior Analyst, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

2. Evelyn Espinosa, Research Adviser at Diálogos

3. Pamela Ruiz, Consultant at the Coalition for Resilience Project and member of the GI Network of Experts.

4. Professor Lucia Dammert, University of Santiago, Chile and member of the GI Network of Experts.

GI Extortion Project

Paper: A Criminal Culture: Extortion in Central America

Other content available at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime website.

Next Episode

Child Sexual Abuse Material, COVID and Technology.

With more people working from home than ever before due to the pandemic,. But another parallel pandemic is taking place, that of online child sexual abuse material which has taken a sharp rise around the world.

In this podcast, we’re discussing Child Online Sexual Abuse (CSAM), COVID and technology.

Presenter(s): Lucia Bird Ruiz-Benitez de Lugo and Jack Meegan-Vickers.

Speakers:

Fernando Ruiz, Head of Operations at the European Cybercrime Centre, set up by Europol to co-ordinate crossborder investigations into cybercrime.

Amela Efendic is the director of the European Resource Centre for the Prevention of Trafficking and head of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Office for the International Forum for Solidarity-Emmaus.

Judie Kaberia is a fellow of the 2020 Resilience Fund of the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime.

GI Research Paper: Transformative Technologies: How digital is changing the landscape of organized crime.

Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime