Linkage Of Organized Crime With Terrorism

India is confronting a deepening security threat as the boundaries between organised crime and terrorism increasingly blur. In the latest major crackdown, the National Investigation Agency (NIA)  has carried out extensive raids across Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Haryana to bust a large inter-state ammunition-trafficking syndicate. These developments suggest that the threat landscape is evolving: organised-crime networks are not operating in isolation, but increasingly intersecting with terrorist and extremist elements

What is Organized Crime?

According to the UNODC, an organised criminal group is defined as a structured association of at least three individuals that operates over a period of time and works together to carry out serious offences for financial or material benefit. 

Types of Organised Crime

Similarities between Organized Crime and Terrorism

• Recruitment & Psychology: Members often emerge from marginalised groups, attracted to risk, thrill, and defiance of social norms, creating similar recruitment pools.

• Legality & Punishment: Both operate outside the law, engage in serious criminal offences, and face strict national and international penalties.

• Technology & Methods: Each relies increasingly on modern technology, digital tools, high-tech communication, financing, and concealment systems.

• Organisation & Discipline: Both maintain hierarchical structures, enforce strict codes of conduct with internal punishment, and carry out well-planned operations.

• Secrecy & Violence: Activities are shrouded in secrecy, and violence or intimidation is used to achieve objectives or influence the surroundings.

• Operational Nexus: Terror groups often finance operations through organised crime, while criminal syndicates may pursue political goals using terror tactics, creating a blurred and overlapping boundary.

Differences between Organized Crime and Terrorism

• Motives & Objectives: Terrorism is driven by ideological or political goals aimed at transforming society, whereas organized crime seeks financial gain and profit.

• Nature of Goals: Terrorist acts pursue specific political or social change using violence, while organized crime focuses on economic benefits and legalizing illicit wealth, with minimal political intent.

• Visibility & Messaging: Organized crime maintains secrecy and avoids publicity, whereas terrorist groups openly declare their objectives to gain support and demonstrate determination.

• Responsibility for Acts: Terrorist organizations often claim responsibility for attacks to maximize impact, while organized crime groups avoid any admission of involvement.

• Relationship with the State: Terrorism confronts and challenges the state to alter political order, while organized crime infiltrates state institutions through corruption and selective cooperation.

Linkage Of Organized Crime With Terrorism

Understanding how organized crime and terrorism connect is crucial for strong security policies. Even though they often use similar methods and structures, they pursue different goals. Their relationship can involve cooperation or convergence, and most commonly, criminal activities are used to fund terrorist operations.

• Financing Terrorism

• • The UNODC has highlighted that profits from criminal activities increasingly finance terrorism, especially through arms trafficking and money laundering.

• • Examples include Taliban funding from opium production in Afghanistan, and FARC financing through cocaine trafficking, kidnapping, and extortion.

• • Technology, communication, transport, and finance networks now enable easier international cooperation between terrorists and criminal groups.

• Narco Terrorism

• • The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) defines narco-terrorism as a form of terrorism involving direct or indirect participation in the cultivation, production, transport, or distribution of drugs, and using the profits to support terrorism.

• • The concept has a dual nature, depending on whether the focus is on drug trafficking or terrorism.

• Financing Terrorism through Money Laundering

• • Money laundering is used to generate and move funds for terrorism, by collecting money or property and using it fully or partially to support terrorist acts.
  • Terrorist financing involves multiple channels, including banking systems, cross-border cash smuggling, alternative transfer networks, and front organizations such as humanitarian or non-profit groups.
  • The major consequences include destabilizing financial systems, economic instability, declined investment, loss of state credibility, and threats to national security.

• Human Trafficking and Terrorism

• • Human trafficking is increasingly used by terrorist groups, not only for raising funds but also to increase manpower, enable sexual exploitation, and intimidate or harass populations.

• • It supports the formation of military units, with child soldiers and girls recruited and later exploited for sex, logistics, or intelligence, as highlighted in UN reports.

• Intellectual Property Crime and Terrorism

• • Intellectual Property Crime (IPC) involves the production, transport, storage, and sale of counterfeit or pirated goods without the rights holder’s consent, often through trademark, patent, trade dress, or copyright infringement.

• • In 2016, terrorist organizations in North Africa were linked to a $1 billion contraband tobacco trade.

Linkages in the Indian Context

Crime and terrorism are closely connected in many regions of India, even though the relationship may not be universal. Case studies from India show clear patterns where terrorist activities depend on organized crime.

• North-East India

• • Extortion is the primary source of funding for terrorism in the region.
  • Kidnapping is widely used to spread fear and raise money.
  • Other criminal activities include Human trafficking, Drug trafficking, Gun running, etc. 
  • Government officials in conflict areas are often threatened or bribed to give contracts to groups supported by militants.
  • Essential commodities like rice and fuel are diverted to militant groups, who resell them at higher prices, demonstrating a direct link between organized crime and terrorism.

• Jammu & Kashmir

• • Unlike the Northeast, extortion and kidnapping are less common.
  • External funding plays a major role, especially from Pakistan and Gulf countries.
  • These funds are transferred through Money Laundering and Hawala networks, eventually reaching militant groups.
  • Counterfeit currency is a major source of financing- terrorists act as couriers of fake Indian currency in Kashmir. This currency later spreads across India.

• Maoist-Affected Regions

• • Extortion is common among Maoist groups.
  • They have also been involved in bank robberies, forcing cuts on drug-producing crops to generate income.

Steps Taken by Government to Counter Organized Crime 

• Anti-Trafficking Nodal Cell (MHA) acts as the central coordination point for decisions and follow-up with states.

• MWCD funds rehabilitation through Ujjawala (sex-trafficking victims) and Swadhar (women in distress), along with bilateral agreements with countries like Bangladesh, Nepal and Bahrain to curb trafficking.

• NDPS Act, 1985 and Prevention of Illicit Trafficking Act, 1988 provide the legal backbone to combat drug production, transport and abuse.

• Operation Dhvast (2023) by NIA with state police targeted a terrorist–gangster–drug–arms nexus.

• India is a signatory to major UN conventions on narcotics, supporting global action through UNODC.

• Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection & Rehabilitation) Bill, 2021 proposes investigation units, rehabilitation committees, protection homes, and special courts to ensure faster trials.

• Special courts in each district aim to complete trafficking trials within a year.

• MCOCA, 1999 (used in Maharashtra and Delhi) has helped reduce gang and syndicate operations, despite the absence of a national organized crime law.

Global Initiatives to Tackle Organised Crime

• The UNTOC, adopted by UN General Assembly Resolution 55/25, is the primary international legal instrument to combat transnational organized crime. It marks a major global commitment to address the growing threat of criminal networks and promotes strong international cooperation. By ratifying the Convention, States agree to:
• Create domestic criminal laws targeting organized criminal groups, money laundering, corruption, and obstruction of justice.

• Establish mechanisms for extradition, mutual legal assistance, intelligence sharing, and joint investigations.

• Strengthen law enforcement capacities through training and technical support.

• • Countries must become parties to the Convention before they can adopt its three supplementary Protocols, which focus on specific forms of organized crime:

• Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children

• Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea, and Air

• Illicit Manufacturing and Trafficking of Firearms, Parts, Components, and Ammunition

• These Protocols promote victim protection, border controls, arms tracing, and criminalization of trafficking and smuggling networks.

• The Convention plays a key role in disrupting illicit financial flows, asset laundering, and transnational criminal networks, and supports the seizure and confiscation of criminal proceeds. It also helps safeguard the global economy from criminal infiltration and corruption.

Challenges in Tackling Organized Crime in India

• Weak Legal Framework: Laws focus on individual offenders, not the criminal networks, making it hard to dismantle entire syndicates.
• Evidence Barriers: Hierarchical and insulated structures protect masterminds, making it difficult to gather direct proof against top leaders.
• Slow Trials & Low Convictions: Delays in investigation, court procedures and poor conviction rates reduce deterrence and discourage public cooperation.
• Resource Constraints: Limited funds, manpower, training and technology weaken policing capacity, especially in states with poor fiscal health.
• Power Nexus: Collusion between criminals, politicians and officials enables syndicates to operate with impunity, influencing decisions and evading action.

Way Forward

• Institutional & Legal Reforms

• • Create specialised units at all levels for intelligence, documentation and investigation, along with a national body for data collection, analysis and information exchange on domestic and international gangs.
  • Strengthen legal mechanisms through speedy extradition, Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) treaties, and strict implementation of laws such as MCOCA and the Gangster Act, with regular reviews and updates.

• Operational & Intelligence Strengthening

• • Build military, policing and intelligence capabilities to disrupt criminal and terror networks.
  • Share intelligence, exchange personnel, conduct joint operations with other states and countries.
  • Enhance Interpol cooperation to break cross-border crime–terror links and track fugitives.

• International Cooperation

• • Promote global coordination, similar to anti-human trafficking, anti-drug efforts and the Kimberley Process.
  • Joint actions with UN bodies, regional blocs and neighbouring countries to counter funding, trafficking and smuggling networks.

• Community & Media Engagement

• • Public awareness campaigns, media outreach, workshops, and community initiatives to build societal resistance.
  • Encourage citizen participation in reporting, prevention and social boycott of crime syndicate figures.

• Technology & Capacity Building

• • Invest in modern surveillance, analytics, cyber tools, forensics and training of police forces.
  • Improve documentation, databases and early-warning systems on gang activities and terror financing.

• Unified Global Strategy

• • Adopt a common framework, with data sharing and unified approach to break the crime–terror nexus.
  • Follow UN guidance, ensuring countries criminalize participation in organized crime and enforce the convention effectively.

Conclusion

Organized crime and terrorism are increasingly interconnected, sharing resources, networks, and funding channels. Criminal activities such as drug trafficking, extortion, smuggling, and human trafficking provide vital financial support to terror groups. Weak law enforcement, porous borders, and corruption allow these networks to thrive. Breaking this nexus requires robust intelligence, strong legal frameworks, and global cooperation. A coordinated and multi-dimensional approach is essential to safeguard national and international security.