Convergence And Exploitation: Transnational Organized Crime, Terrorism And The Threat To America.

摘要

Since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, America has been fighting terrorist organizations on the distant battlefields of the Middle East and Africa. Yet, increasingly, these terrorist organizations are operating in the western hemisphere. Terrorist groups like Hezbollah, Al Qaeda, ISIS, and the FARC are working with Transnational Organized Crime (TOC) groups throughout the NORTHCOM and SOUTHCOM areas of responsibility (AOR). The danger is that Latin American TOCs like the Mexican drug cartel Los Zetas, control the lucrative smuggling pipelines that span North, Central and South America. These land, sea and air illicit pipelines transit humans, drugs and weapons into the United States on a daily basis. Could terrorist organizations use these same pipelines to attack the United States? Have the NORTHCOM and SOUTHCOM AORs become strategic blind spots from which a terrorist could initiate another September 11th? This paper will demonstrate the growing nexus of TOCs and terrorist organizations in Latin America, the States that support, harbor and profit from this nexus and the threat this nexus poses to the United States. It will also offer recommendations to address this growing national security concern.