#transnational-crime

#transnational-crime

TOWSON, MARYLAND - Inside a suburban Maryland gas station, the Secret Service's Vincent Porter runs his fingers over a card reader in front of a clerk, hunting for signs that the terminal has been hijacked by thieves. The financial analyst is feeling for the plastic overlay of a skimmer, an electronic device used to exploit the half-century-old card technology still used to deliver benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which helps over 41 million Americans pay for food each month.

Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos have in recent years become havens for transnational crime syndicates running scam centres such as KK Park, which use enslaved workers to run complex online fraud and scamming schemes that generate huge profits. For them, money is more important than human life Trafficking victim There have been some attempts to crack down on the centres and rescue the workers, who can be subjected to torture and trapped inside.

But Myanmar's civil war is not just a humanitarian catastrophe-it's a geopolitical fault line. The protracted conflict has displaced 2.6 million people, fueled transnational arms and drug networks, and drawn in outside powers like China and Russia-yet it remains largely absent from international policy debates. Analysts warn that continued neglect could destabilize Southeast Asia for years to come, potentially empowering malign actors across the region.

Anwar Ibrahim reflects on his leadership role in ASEAN, emphasizing the need to address rising transnational crime and Malaysia's ongoing struggles with the 1MDB scandal.