Crime Syndicates in Southeast Asia Go Global, Defying Crackdowns

Cyber crime syndicates that run multi-billion-dollar scam operations across Southeast Asia are still expanding despite recent law enforcement crackdowns, building links from Ireland to Mexico and reaching a potentially irreversible global spillover, the United Nations warned.

The transnational criminal networks are infiltrating and scaling up in other parts of the world, particularly in the Pacific region, Africa, South America and South Asia, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said in a report published on Monday. They use trafficked workers from dozens of countries and are largely based in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos.