The Relationship of Organized Crime with International Terrorism and Extremist Groups

The purpose of this study was to examine the activities of international extremist and terrorist organizations in relation to organized crime. International extremism and terrorism are constantly expanding their boundaries by recruiting new members ready to commit terrorist acts. Terrorism and extremism, as one of the high-profile and violent transnational crimes, tend to spread globally. Their ranks are constantly being swollen by active participants who freely supply international extremist and terrorist organizations with weapons, ammunition, explosives, vehicles and equipment, as well as the necessary documents, recruiters and accomplices who finance large-scale and major terrorist operations. The research objectives are to analyze the reasons favoring the formation of complex network structures of organized crime with the involvement of extremists and terrorists in its ranks. The factors of growth of interconnection of organized crime with international extremist and terrorist groups are analyzed. The militants, who passed combat and special training and returned home from combat operations zone, pose a special danger as they create new local terrorist cells via social networks, provoke interethnic and religious conflicts, popularize the ideology of violence among the youth. It has been established that today there is a need to develop a well-thought-out system of interaction with foreign law enforcement agencies to effectively counteract these phenomena. The global and destructive nature of terrorism and extremism ideology, the eradication of which is a priority task for the world community. Criminal activity of international extremist and terrorist organizations involves not only specific perpetrators and their accomplices, but the whole social groups of ethnic, religious and political coloration, pursuing various goals. The world, faced with the aggression of international terrorism, should improve international anti-terrorist legislation, strengthen preventive and suppressive measures, and toughen responsibility for organized extremist and terrorist activity through the joint efforts of states.

extremism, terrorism, organized crime, recruitment, combating, countering