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

The war in Ukraine is fought not only on the battlefield but also through vast illicit trade networks that continue to generate revenue, evade sanctions and sustain Russia's military capabilities. This research uncovers the commercial, financial and maritime networks enabling these activities and explores how governments and businesses can better disrupt them.

Olivia Allison

Joshua Coyle

July 2026

This paper examines the links between illegal drug trafficking, violence, and corruption in Central Asia. The research demonstrates how drug trafficking is highly organised with major criminal and state actors participating in the illicit activity. Criminal violence is spread across the region, especially in urban areas, but the Central Asian states are capable of intercepting and preventing illicit activities. By analysing big data on violence, drug interdictions, and patterns of corruption in the region between 2015 and 2022, we explain the relationship between drug trafficking and key actors from the criminal underworld and state agencies in Central Asia.

Erica Marat & Gulzat Botoeva

May 2022

This briefing note – part of a project advancing a new conceptual framework designed to improve our understanding of Russian illicit financial flows (IFFs) as linked to foreign policy (FP) aims – provides an overview of Russia’s economic presence in South Eastern Europe. It first considers its interaction with the post-Yugoslav region as a whole, then zooming into the patterns at play in Serbia and Montenegro. These two countries have had a dramatic change in relations with Russia in 2014, when Montenegro implemented sanctions after the annexation of Crimea, and Serbia did not. This juncture offers a clear opportunity to think about the extent to which IFF from Russia are linked to foreign policy considerations.

Tena Prelec

May 2022

This short evidence review paper, written before February 2022, looks at the links between corruption, crime and conflict in eastern Ukraine. As well as explaining the background to the conflict in eastern Ukraine (at the time of writing), the paper also looks at the pre-conflict situation with regard to organised crime and corruption and how organised crime and corruption play a role in, and have been impacted by, the conflict.

Iffat Idris

May 2022