Socom conference delves into partnerships of extremists, criminals | TBO.com and The Tampa Tribune: What do Hizballah, an international crime syndicate called “D-Company,” and global drug cartels have in common?
Finding the answer to that question, and ways to stop the interaction between violent extremists and criminal enterprises, is the goal of a conference taking place this week at U.S. Special Operations Command’s headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base.
Socom is on the tip of the Pentagon’s spear for tracking violent extremist financing, working with the FBI, the Department of Treasury and other organizations.
The command’s annual Counter Threat Finance Working Group meeting is bringing together about 100 experts from the private sector, law enforcement, military and organizations like the FBI to help develop a “comprehensive approach for disrupting Transnational Organized Crime networks,” said Air Force Capt. Brian J. Wagner, a Socom spokesman.
The topic for this year’s conference, which began Tuesday and runs through Thursday, is “The Evolution of Transnational Organized Crime Networks,” and their relationship to sources of finance, Wagner said.
One of the objectives of the working group is to address the relationship between Transnational Organized Crime networks and terrorist organizations, Wagner said in an email to the Tribune. The mix of participants in the conference, which is closed to the press and public, is designed to bring a comprehensive approach to the challenge.
