Thirty on-going armed conflicts are to a significant extent funded by illicit drugs. Drug trafficking takes a terrible human toll as well. In Iran, for instance, almost 3000 law enforcement officers have been killed by drug traffickers in the past ten years. Globalization would not have been possible without the revolution in technology which has occurred in the past twenty years. The advent of global electronic banking has been the key to economic integration and market expansion.
Transnational crime generates money.
The IMF estimates that money laundering involves between 2 and 5 per cent of the world's gross domestic product, some 600 billion dollars annually. What might otherwise be a local case takes on a more complex transnational dimension. Transnational transfers are used to escape the arm of national law enforcement. Technological advance has also had other impacts on crime. Threats are posed to individual security and to the security of business and government.