Organised crime is increasingly expanding beyond traditional markets such as drugs and human trafficking into the illicit trade of legal commodities, including counterfeit goods, tobacco, pharmaceuticals and consumer products. This research explores how criminal networks exploit global supply chains, regulatory gaps and cross-border trade systems to generate profits while reducing risks. By operating through legitimate infrastructure, including ports, logistics networks and distribution channels, organised crime has become deeply intertwined with the legal economy. Understanding these evolving markets is essential to addressing how criminal groups adapt, diversify and take advantage of the vulnerabilities created by global trade and uneven regulation.

Alexander Kupatadze (KCL)

June 2026

States are increasingly outsourcing clandestine and covert tasks to organised criminal actors. In this RUSI Journal article, these relationships are mapped and a state-domain matrix for analysing them offered. Drawing on lessons from stabilisation and counterinsurgency, Heather Marquette and Matthew Redhead contend that purely operational responses are insufficient without engagement with the political economy that sustains these relationships, and propose dedicated cross-government cells to integrate the response.

Prof Heather Marquette (University of Birmingham)

Matthew Redhead (RUSI)

June 2026