Transnational Criminal Activity

Transnational criminal activity is a growing problem in Canada and around the world. Technological advances over the past 20 years have made national borders irrelevant to telecommunications and financial transactions, and have enabled the globalization of criminal activity.

Whereas crime syndicates of the past were involved in illegal street-level activities such as drug trafficking, prostitution, illegal gambling, loansharking and extortion, today’s syndicates have shifted to a quasi-corporate level in activities such as arms dealing, large-scale insurance fraud, environmental crime, migrant smuggling, money laundering, bank fraud, gasoline tax fraud and corruption. This kind of crime affects people’s sense of security, trust, order and community—the underpinnings of Canadian society—and poses a threat to Canada’s economic security by undermining the functioning of the free-market economy.

Transnational crime groups have access to large sums of money that needs to be “laundered.” This large-scale money laundering can affect the operations of legitimate financial institutions that, in the long term, can go beyond the business sector and have negative effects on the investment climate, tax revenues, and consumer confidence. The large amounts of money, combined with a willingness to use violence, enable transnational crime organizations to bribe, extort or coerce employees of financial institutions and governments. An estimated $5 billion to $17 billion is laundered in Canada each year.

	Read More:  Working Against Transnational Criminal Activity Examples of Transnational Criminal Activity Virtual Library on Transnational Criminal Activity

Date modified: 2005-11-14

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