EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) continue to grapple with some of the highest rates of violence and corruption in the world, particularly due to the corrosive presence of transnational criminal organizations (TCOs). Notorious regional TCOs continue to sell drugs worldwide, kill with impunity, bribe local officials, terrorize communities, and build deadly international partnerships with Italian, Russian, and Albanian criminals. But one group has quietly increased its influence throughout this region, even though its customers are half a world away: Chinese criminal networks.
Over the past decade, Chinese criminal groups operating in LAC have specialized in four illegal activities. They ship fentanyl precursors to Mexico, where cartels make them into potent drugs that kill 200 U.S. lives every day; launder money using the “Flying Money” method, adding to…
