Welcome to this Friday's edition of This Week in Drugs and Thugs. It's been another wild week of international security news, but the weekend is finally here. Below is a list of some of the best news and analysis articles from this week. Like the rest of Drugs and Thugs Blog, the topics addressed are terrorism, insurgency, transnational criminal organizations, and narcotics trafficking.
Announced Zetas, Gulf Alliances Could Change Mexico’s Criminal Landscape: First off, from David Gagne at InSight Crime, a stunning development in Mexican cartel alliance structure, if true. If sections of the Zetas are really ending the fight against Gulf Cartel, the organization that they broke off from years ago, this could be a massive move against the Sinaloa Cartel. This is definitely worth following in the coming months.
No Blacklist Yet for Islamic State Banks: FP’s Jamila Trindle reports on the US Treasury Department’s actions and rationale for inaction against banks existing in the territory controlled by ISIS. Although Treasury could shut those banks entirely out of the international finance system, the action has not happened, likely because ISIS receives most of its funding through criminal means, not from donors.
Law Enforcement Takes on the Black Markets of the “Dark Web”: Although Tor networks are considered to be impenetrable, law enforcement in the US and Europe have arrested 17 and shut down over 400 dark web markets, reports OCCRP. This action comes in the wake of an FBI operation last year that resulted in the closure of the most famous dark web market, Silk Road. All of the sites involved were selling either drugs, stolen/fake credit cards, fake currency, or fake identification documents.
American Power and the Culmination of Unconventional Warfare: Steve Thomas at War on the Rocks has a take on the necessity for more integrated interagency coordination in unconventional warfare. The US will continue to deal with unconventional warfare both now and in the future, so we should be ready to do so. Thomas argues that the CIA, State, and USAID should be brought into current Army and Marine Special Forces exercises in order to build relationships between the agencies.
AQAP Continues Escalation of Attacks in Yemen, Targets US Ambassador: The Long War Journal’s Oren Adaki with a post on AQAP actions in Yemen this week, most notably two IEDs near the Yemeni President’s residence set to explode when the US Ambassador left a meeting there. Later in the week, the US killed seven AQAP members by drone strike. The conflict in Yemen between the Houthi rebels, AQAP, the Yemeni government, and US drones continues to be the most fascinating and underreported international security story.
The Rise of the Islamic State and How to Reverse It: At Small Wars Journal, Mbaye Bashir Lo has a piece on where ISIS came from, its ideological and territorial goals, and its place in a state-less region. “Obama might have been right that IS ‘is neither Islamic nor a state,’ but IS has to be defeated by both—Islam and the State.’”
What Will Change if ISIS and al-Qaida Patch Things Up?: Slate’s Joshua Keating speculates what the potential rapprochement between the two leading jihadist groups means for any remaining Syrian moderate rebels. Strategically, this complicates Obama’s current policy only focused on Iraq. As always, more to come on this issue.
Putin Sends His ‘Leopard’ to the Battlefield of Eastern Ukraine: At FP again, Michael Weiss and James Miller with a report on the most recent Russian invasion of Ukraine, specifically on the heavy weapons systems involved. If the Donetsk separatists now have access to these systems, it represents a serious increase in firepower on the separatists’ side and increased involvement for Russia. Ukraine may have been described as a frozen conflict in recent weeks, but this is proof that the conflict is
anything but frozen.
Libya, A Broken State: Finally, a new Vice News documentary from the front lines of the conflict in Libya. Vice News continues their streak of unbelievable access with militant groups, this time embedded with a group known as Libyan Dawn, currently fighting against the Libyan government. This documentary is fascinating.
Thanks for reading, and enjoy the weekend.
For comments, thoughts, concerns, criticism, or article submissions for D&TB, please comment below, email me at conormlarkin@gmail.com, or follow me on Twitter @ConorMLarkin
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