Posts by ICAIEpress
Egmont Network of Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) Meetings, January 2026: Sharing Strategic Intelligence on Hubs of Illicit Trade and Related Global Risks
David M. Luna attended, and participated at, the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units meetings of Working and Regional Groups, 26-30 January 2026, Arusha, Tanzania. Our George Mason University (GMU) team briefed on our Hubs of Illicit Trade (HIT) project, and invited to attend numerous regional groups’ working sessions. The Egmont Group recognizes that financial…
Read MoreEnhancing Cross-Border Security through Leveraged Public-Private Partnerships and A Global Network to Counter Money Laundering
In 2026, ICAIE will be releasing not only our new ICAIE Report on Transaction Laundering (“Criminals Accelerating Illicit Trade by Exploiting Digital Markets and Modern Threat Finance Landscapes”), but also working diligently to advance public-private partnerships to counter illicit economies and related money laundering and threat finance including by participating in numerous diplomatic fora in…
Read MoreIllicit Shadows – The Dark Forces Shaping the Global Criminal Underworld: Ep.1.4: The Cartels
The Mexican cartels are no longer just drug traffickers. They’re chemists, logisticians, CEOs of illicit empires, ruthless criminals, and transnational power brokers. The geopolitical realities across the Americas is that we have been witnessing a global asymmetrical warfare in which narco-terrorists and threat networks are employing violence and intimidation of communities to achieve political aims…
Read MoreIdentifying and Reporting Human Trafficking and related Money Laundering
In observing this January’s National Human Trafficking Prevention Month in the United States, at a related earlier dialogue, someone had asked me if there were red flags or good practices on detecting money laundering concerning cross-border modern slavery to not only help to disrupt such an odious crime but to also help communities identify victims,…
Read MoreThe ICAIE Protocol: A Criminal-Threat Convergence Framework (≜ Kine-Dynamics)
The ICAIE Protocol (≜ Kine-Dynamics): In an emerging multi-polar world where threat networks do not respect rules, norms, breaking their cycle of corruptive influence and the economic power within ecosystems of criminality requires more anticipatory protocols and robust enforcement, especially those bad actors that are exploiting Boyd’s OODA loop — observe, orient, decide, and act…
Read MoreCan Leveraging a Criminal-Threat Convergence Framework Transform the Fight Against Illicit Economies in the Americas? Yes—The ICAIE Protocol.
In recent days, I have had the opportunity to share my views with a number of news media and policy communities on the current security situation in Venezuela and related diplomatic considerations including President Trump’s new National Security Strategy of the United States of America (November 2025), and how the United States aims to enforce…
Read MoreICAIE’s 2026 Outlook: Top 5 Illicit Threats
ICAIE’s 2026 Outlook: Top 5 Illicit Threats: 1. Unchecked Corruptive Influence2. Criminalized Trade Hubs and Markets3. Deadlier Fentanyl-Mixed Hybrids4. Digitized Transaction Laundering5. AI Sophisticated Deepfakes/Counterfeits Unchecked Corruptive Influence: Criminals and Threat Networks will continue to expand an ecosystem of criminality through blatant corrupt practices, targeted bribery, collusion, and fierce coercion to infiltrate governance structures, destabilize…
Read MoreICAIE’s John Cassara on How Bad Actors & Threat Networks use the Global Financial System to Launder Trillions of Dollars in Dirty Money
Learn more about “How do global FinSinners—from cartels to corrupt actors—use the financial system to wash trillions?” [see below, Parts 1 and 2, produced by First American] featuring ICAIE’s Vice President and Senior Advisor, John A. Cassara — and former CIA spy and Treasury agent. Cassara joins Sarah Frano, Host – First on Fraud, and…
Read MoreFighting Organized Crime, Illicit Trade, and Corrosive Capital across the Caribbean
Statement by David M. Luna, Executive Director, ICAIE 9 December 2025 Fighting Organized Crime, Illicit Trade, and Corrosive Capital across the Caribbean It is an honor for ICAIE to join this year’s ACAMS The Assembly Caribbean 2025 and to speak during the Panel on “The Inter-Linked Webs of Organized Crime in the Caribbean”. Increasingly, violent…
Read MoreICAIE New “ILLICIT SHADOWS” Episode 1: Dispatch 1: Chemical Cartels: American Fallout – How Fentanyl Became a Weapon of War
What if the deadliest war in America isn’t being fought overseas, but right here on our streets? Across the country, a chemical weapon is claiming lives faster than any bullet. It’s not launched by missiles or drones. It’s packaged, shipped, and sold—one dose at a time. That weapon is fentanyl. The fentanyl trade has unleashed…
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