How to measure organized crime?
A series of 13 discussion papers, one for each illicit market considered during the development of the Index.
Read more on globalinitiative.netCriminal markets
3.05
An assessment of the value, prevalence and non-monetary impacts of a specific crime type.
Human trafficking
4.00
Illicit activity involving coercion, deception, abduction or fraud for the purpose of exploitation, regardless of the victim’s consent.
Human smuggling
2.00
Activities by an organized crime group involving the illegal entry, transit or residence of migrants for a financial or material benefit.
Arms trafficking
3.00
The sale, acquisition, movement, and diversion of arms, their parts and ammunition from legal to illegal commerce and/or across borders.
Flora crimes
1.00
The illicit trade and possession of species covered by CITES convention, and other species protected under national law.
Fauna crimes
3.50
The poaching, illicit trade in and possession of species covered by CITES and other species protected by national law. Includes IUU fishing.
Non-renewable resource crimes
1.50
The illicit extraction, smuggling, mingling, bunkering or mining of natural resources and the illicit trade of such commodities.
Heroin trade
3.00
The production, distribution and sale of heroin. Consumption of the drug is considered in determining the reach of the criminal market.
Cocaine trade
6.00
The production, distribution and sale of cocaine and its derivatives. Consumption is considered in determining the reach of the market.
Cannabis trade
5.00
The illicit cultivation, distribution and sale of cannabis oil, resin, herb or leaves. Consumption is used to determine the market's reach.
Synthetic drug trade
1.50
The production, distribution and sale of synthetic drugs. Consumption is considered in determining the reach of the market.
Criminal actors
3.63
An assessment of the impact and influence of a specific criminal actor type on society.
Mafia-style groups
3.00
Clearly defined organized crime groups that usually have a known name, defined leadership, territorial control and identifiable membership.
Criminal networks
3.00
Loose networks of criminal associates engaging in criminal activities who fail to meet the defining characteristics of mafia-style groups.
State-embedded actors
3.00
Criminal actors that are embedded in, and act from within, the state’s apparatus.
Foreign actors
5.50
State and/or non-state criminal actors operating outside their home country. Includes foreign nationals and diaspora groups.
Political leadership and governance
4.50
The State's role in responding to organized crime and its effectiveness. Strong political leadership/governance suggests higher resilience.
Government transparency and accountability
5.00
The degree to which states have put oversight mechanisms in place to ensure against state collusion in illicit activities.
International cooperation
5.00
A country's supranational structures and processes of interaction, policy making and concrete implementation to respond to organized crime.
National policies and laws
5.00
A state's legal action and structures put in place to respond to organized crime.
Judicial system and detention
3.00
Refers to a state’s judiciary’s power to effectively and independently enforce judgments on organized crime-related cases.
Law enforcement
4.00
The state’s ability to investigate, gather intelligence, protect and enforce adherence to its rules and procedures against organized crime.
Territorial integrity
4.00
The degree to which states are able to control their physical and cyber territory and infrastructure against organized criminal activities.
Anti-money laundering
2.50
A state’s ability to implement measures to combat money laundering and other related threats to the integrity of its financial system.
Economic regulatory capacity
5.00
The ability to control/manage the economy and regulate transactions (national and international) for trade to thrive within the rule of law.
Victim and witness support
4.00
Assistance provided to victims of various forms of organized crime, including initiatives such as witness protection programs.
Prevention
4.50
Refers to the existence of strategies, measures, resource allocation, programmes and processes that are aimed to inhibit organized crime.
Non-state actors
5.50
The degree non-state actors are allowed to engage in OC responses and their roles in supporting State efforts/ as watchdogs to governments.
Political leadership and governance
4.50
The State's role in responding to organized crime and its effectiveness. Strong political leadership/governance suggests higher resilience.
Government transparency and accountability
5.00
The degree to which states have put oversight mechanisms in place to ensure against state collusion in illicit activities.
International cooperation
5.00
A country's supranational structures and processes of interaction, policy making and concrete implementation to respond to organized crime.
National policies and laws
5.00
A state's legal action and structures put in place to respond to organized crime.
Judicial system and detention
3.00
Refers to a state’s judiciary’s power to effectively and independently enforce judgments on organized crime-related cases.
Law enforcement
4.00
The state’s ability to investigate, gather intelligence, protect and enforce adherence to its rules and procedures against organized crime.
Territorial integrity
4.00
The degree to which states are able to control their physical and cyber territory and infrastructure against organized criminal activities.
Anti-money laundering
2.50
A state’s ability to implement measures to combat money laundering and other related threats to the integrity of its financial system.
Economic regulatory capacity
5.00
The ability to control/manage the economy and regulate transactions (national and international) for trade to thrive within the rule of law.
Victim and witness support
4.00
Assistance provided to victims of various forms of organized crime, including initiatives such as witness protection programs.
Prevention
4.50
Refers to the existence of strategies, measures, resource allocation, programmes and processes that are aimed to inhibit organized crime.
Non-state actors
5.50
The degree non-state actors are allowed to engage in OC responses and their roles in supporting State efforts/ as watchdogs to governments.
Human trafficking is increasingly popular in Antigua and Barbuda, with criminal syndicates enticing women from abroad, primarily Saint Lucia, Jamaica and Guyana, with false promises of jobs. Once in the country, women are forced into prostitution, domestic servitude or retail work. Criminal groups reportedly operate jointly with immigration officers and senior officials by bribing them. Additionally, anecdotal evidence suggests that caregivers and parents are responsible for forcing children into sexual exploitation. Antigua is a child-sex-tourism destination for locals and tourists. There are also allegations against off-duty police officers, claiming the latter are complicit in human trafficking, helping criminal groups by impeding investigations or persuading victims not to report crimes.
There is little evidence of human smuggling in Antigua and Barbuda. When it does occur, it is enabled through document forgery for migration purposes, which is reported to have taken place with Antiguan and Barbudan passports.
Gun crime among the youth on the island is increasing and reports suggest that security services either provide the weapons themselves or facilitate gun crime by allowing organized groups to traffic weapons into the country. Arms trafficking seems to be the reason for the high rates of serious crime within the Caribbean region.
While no evidence supports the existence of a flora crimes market in Antigua and Barbuda, there is a small market for illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and trafficking of conch. Although fauna crimes may be committed by individuals, export to destination markets requires illegal purchasers, which effectively creates criminal networks. Additionally, there is no evidence to suggest a non-renewable-resources crime market exists.
Heroin is neither produced nor commonly shipped on the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) route, which would imply there is no significant heroin market in Antigua and Barbuda. The country, however, is situated in the middle of major drug trafficking routes that connect major narcotics source countries in South America with major destination markets in the North (e.g. the United Kingdom and the US). This, alongside lack of monitoring and policing of territorial waters, makes Antigua and Barbuda a key transit point for cocaine. Cocaine is trafficked via marine routes in small speedboats, yachts, fishing vessels and large freighters. Traffickers usually deliver and offload their drug shipments either on beaches or offshore, where the drug loads are moved to smaller boats, from whereon drug shipments make their way to destination markets. Drug traffickers also transport cocaine and cannabis to Antigua and Barbuda on commercial airlines. There have been allegations of state actors facilitating the drug trade to some extent.
Antigua and Barbuda cultivates small quantities of cannabis in the hilly and sparsely populated areas of the countryside, mainly for local consumption. Production alone, however, is unable to sustain the demand, which is why cannabis is trafficked from Jamaica, St Vincent and Colombia. Due to territorial vulnerabilities, cannabis is smuggled to Antigua and Barbuda by sea and air routes. There have been reports of synthetic drug seizures, but these have been isolated incidents, with smuggling attempts carried out by individuals. It is therefore difficult to verify a possible link between synthetic drugs and organized crime.
*This indicator was first included in the 2023 iteration of the tool
*This indicator was first included in the 2023 iteration of the tool
It is likely that foreign actors are engaging in the drug trade in Antigua and Barbuda, as the island country is too small to organize trafficking flows on its own. Instead, Guatemalans, Jamaicans and Guyanese are supposedly involved in cocaine and cannabis trafficking operations, as well as human trafficking. Antigua and Barbuda has had a long history of corruption since it gained independence from the United Kingdom. Currently, however, reports suggest only low-level state actors facilitate criminal markets, including arms, drug and human trafficking.
Criminal networks appear to be concentrated in poorer areas and mostly engage in theft, car break-ins and home invasions. Nevertheless, reports indicate that loose networks are becoming more involved in the trafficking of women from abroad and forcing them into sexual exploitation. Allegedly, local criminal networks also cooperate with transnational organizations in trafficking drugs. Officials maintain that gangs that operate in the country typically involve young men, and are not highly organized. Arguably, however, these gangs could be considered mafia-style groups.
The current government appears to take a strong stance on organized crime, with the administration raising the bar in terms of addressing high-level corruption and organized crime more generally. Notably, however, Antigua and Barbuda’s prime minister, Gaston Browne, has criticized the blacklisting of Caribbean countries as non-cooperative tax jurisdictions a number of times. In addition, public sentiment towards the government is positive and the democratic process is free of criminal influence. While Antigua and Barbuda has had a long history of corruption, the current government has increased transparency and established oversight mechanisms. Public access to information is also well established in practice and although the anti-corruption legal framework is fairly resilient, it has its shortcomings. Additionally, the government lacks resources to undertake investigations into corruption, and anonymity and security for whistle-blowers is not guaranteed.
Antigua and Barbuda is party to all relevant international treaties and conventions pertaining to organized crime. The country is also well represented in the CARICOM and cooperates on matters of security with other members. In recognizing the threat of organized crime, the CARICOM’s Implementation Agency for Crime and Security has developed the Caribbean Counter Illicit Trafficking Strategy in collaboration with regional and international stakeholders. In line with Antigua and Barbuda’s international commitments, the legal framework is robust enough to respond to the organized crime threats the country is facing. More specifically, attention has been dedicated to drug trafficking and use, with a new five-year plan drafted, seeking to coordinate the island country’s anti-drug initiative. Importantly, cannabis legislation was made more lenient, legalizing certain aspects of cannabis use in the country.
Despite the independence of the judiciary, inadequacies in the judicial process have created distrust in the judicial system and authorities more generally. The judiciary is arguably inefficient as criminal procedures often take long to progress, creating a backlog of cases. There is only one prison in Antigua and Barbuda, and poor living conditions render the institution non-compliant to international standards. In addition, overpopulation is reportedly a serious concern, making formal prison control difficult and creating opportunity for corruption among prison guards, which is arguably high. The Royal Antigua and Barbuda Police Force is the principal agency that bears responsibility for maintaining law and order in the country. Corruption, particularly the practice of accepting bribes, is present within police ranks, but allegations of misconduct are investigated and measures against transgressors are taken. Although the country is a transit point for drug trafficking, and border control is weak, no law enforcement unit specifically tasked with countering organized crime exists. Instead, sniffer-dog units are deployed and searches are conducted on all inbound flights from Jamaica. Additional measures have recently been taken to improve security through better control of sea borders.
Antigua and Barbuda is a well-known tax sheltering country, which is why there is a high level of political commitment to the identification and mitigation of money laundering and terrorist financing risks. To that end, the Office of National Drug and Money Laundering Control Policy (ONDCP) cooperates with financial institutions in Antigua and Barbuda, supervising and encouraging the fulfilment of mechanisms aimed at identifying and preventing money laundering. The ONDCP also supervises financial institutions and monitors whether they are being employed as depositories for legitimate or criminal funds that may be used to finance terrorism. Overall, great efforts have been made to enact new legislation to fight the laundering of criminal proceeds while keeping up with international standards. The government has mechanisms to ensure that legitimate businesses are able to operate free from criminal activities. Foreign and domestic investments are encouraged, and authorities provide aftercare and monitoring for established investors. Although investor protection is in place, the economic regulatory environment in the country is only moderately conducive to doing business.
Antigua and Barbuda has an office to support victims of domestic violence, and shelters, funded by the directorate of gender affairs, are available. Positive steps have been taken to increase victim support, including training for law enforcement on anti-human trafficking, as well as increased investigations into human trafficking by the Antigua and Barbuda Trafficking in Persons Prevention Committee, which is the agency responsible for coordinating national anti-human-trafficking efforts. The committee, which has also produced a national education campaign that provides information on red flags and trends in organized crime and human trafficking, includes regional partnerships with Belize, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and the Bahamas to formalize and strengthen regional cooperation mechanisms. In regard to drug trafficking, the Substance Abuse and Prevention Division of the Ministry of Health, Social Transformation and Consumer Affairs plays a vital role in raising public awareness of the risks of drug abuse. There is an anti-drug plan in place, which focuses on awareness and education programmes, counselling and treatment initiatives, and rehabilitation and reintegration. There are active NGOs and some that engage with victims of trafficking, offering them shelter. Overall, however, NGOs are inadequately funded and often under political influence. Although press freedom is generally respected in the country, sedition laws threaten journalistic independence. While most media outlets are owned by entities closely affiliated with the political elite, the country’s prime minister has on occasion labelled critical media outlets as a national threat and criticized their disseminating ‘fake news’.
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The criminal markets score is represented by the pyramid base size and the criminal actors score is represented by the pyramid height, on a scale ranging from 1 to 10. The resilience score is represented by the panel height, which can be identified by the side of the panel.
A series of 13 discussion papers, one for each illicit market considered during the development of the Index.
Read more on globalinitiative.net
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This report was funded in part by a grant from the United States Department of State.
ENACT is funded by the European Union and implemented by the Institute for Security Studies and INTERPOL, in affiliation with the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.
The opinions, findings and conclusions stated herein are those of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime and do not necessarily reflect those of the United States Department of State.