Transnational organised crime (TNOC) is crime that operates across national borders, or crime that’s carried out in one country but which has strong links to other countries.

Organised crime, including TNOC, is a worldwide problem that undermines community wellbeing, governance, economic development and national security. There is increasing pressure on governments to work together to combat TNOC. Globally, the turnover of TNOC groups is estimated to be USD$3 trillion (equivalent to 4 percent of the world’s GDP). The Government of Australia has estimated that 70 percent of its serious and organised crime threats are based offshore or have strong links to other countries.

TNOC poses significant risks to New Zealand’s national security, law and order, public safety and wellbeing, and environment. We don’t have comprehensive data on TNOC in New Zealand, but we know that its scope, scale and impact is growing. TNOC is insidious; it is having a gradual and cumulative effect on many aspects of everyday life. This makes it a challenge for New Zealand’s public, private and not-for-profit sectors, and communities to manage.

TNOC groups are sophisticated businesses that operate across multiple crime types and countries. However, governments and private-sector entities often see and respond only to specific risks, such as a single crime type. They don’t always make connections between different risks and respond to them in a coordinated and systematic way. Businesses and communities have different levels of awareness and understanding about the nature and extent of TNOC risks, threats and impacts. Some are even complacent about them. But if we don’t take coordinated action, TNOC could undermine the integrity of our civic institutions and compromise our legitimate business activities. It could reduce trust within New Zealand, harm our international reputation, negatively affect our economy and significantly harm our society.

New Zealand has a strong approach to combatting organised crime, based on detecting and disrupting crime, and is increasingly focused on preventing crime and building capability. Our law-enforcement and regulatory agencies disrupt, dismantle and target organised criminal activities, commodities and proceeds to reduce their effects on our communities, borders and markets. They work closely with their counterpart agencies in the Pacific, and further afield into Asia, South America, North America and Europe.

Although we are making progress towards combatting TNOC, we need to respond to it in a more strategic, whole-of-system and coordinated way that focuses on prevention. There is scope to make our systems more resilient and improve how we respond to TNOC internationally and domestically.

There are two parts to this document. Part 1 outlines the risks and threats of TNOC, explains how we currently respond to them and why we need to respond to TNOC nationally and strategically. Part 2 outlines our strategy, which will guide agencies and sectors on how to work together to combat TNOC.

The strategy will be implemented between 2020 and 2025 and reviewed at the end of that five-year period. This strategy has been contributed to by the following agencies:

• Department of Conservation

• Department of Corrections

• Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

• Government Communications Security Bureau

• Inland Revenue

• Ministry for Primary Industries

• Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment

• Ministry of Defence

• Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade

• Ministry of Justice • Ministry of Transport

• National Maritime Coordination Centre

• New Zealand Customs Service

• New Zealand Defence Force

• New Zealand Police

• Serious Fraud Office