Abstract
This paper provides an insight to the world of transnational organised crime and drug trafficking.
It examines transnational organised crime groups, their activities and the efforts made to stop
them worldwide. However, for developing-world states, organised crime poses a far greater
threat, undermining the rule of law and their monopoly on violence. While the impact of organised
crime varies, it is equally important to consider the levels at which threats have an impact. As a
result, this paper investigates how organised crime threatens security at the global, national, and
individual levels (human security). It is primarily concerned with drug trafficking, which remains
the most significant and lucrative of all transnational activities; it is the primary (though not the
only) source of illicit wealth and power in many societies; and it is most closely associated with
violence and corruption. This paper also examines human trafficking, which is a direct threat to
human security. Other transnational criminal activities, as well as criminal organisations that
concentrate power and use corruption and violence to protect themselves and their activities, have
an impact on security. The final section of this paper briefly introduces the depth and breadth of
the response to transnational organised crime.