EL PACCTO’s Artificial Intelligence and Organized Crime Study
The study “Artificial Intelligence and Organised Crime” was officially released and presented in San Jose, Costa Rica in December 2024 during the First Bi-Regional Meeting on Artificial Intelligence and Organized Crime organized by EL PACCTO 2.0 (Europe Latin America Assistance Program against Transnational Organized Crime), an international cooperation program funded by the EU that seeks to contribute to security and justice in countries of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) to supporting the fight against transnational organized crime.
The Bi-Regional meeting gathered 91 participants from 56 institutions from 23 countries of LAC and four European Union Member States, France, Germany, Netherlands, and Spain. The participants came from a wide range of sectors from criminal justice authorities, police investigators, criminal law practitioners, academia and civil society representatives.
The study “Artificial Intelligence and Organised Crime” is the first product outcome of EL PACCTO 2.0. Innovation Lab and it is a comprehensive study on the AI tools used by criminal justice authorities (police, law enforcement and the judiciary) in Europe and countries of LAC and contains an extensive analysis of the criminal trends using AI to perpetrate criminal activities in the context of organized crime. The report is divided into four different areas with one additional section with a set of recommendations and conclusions:
1. Context Analysis and Challenges, which includes the main types of AI and underlines current gender and human right related challenges.
2. International Regulations, Strategies and Non-Binding Instruments (soft law), which include a brief analysis of the Council of Europe Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law, the EU AI Act (as applied to criminal justice authorities), regional and national AI strategies and relevant non-binding international principles and policies on AI (EU-HLEG, OECD, UNESCO, UNICRI, UN).
3. Main Crimes committed using AI tools, which includes current crimes and practical examples occurred in different jurisdictions including countries of LAC, namely, financial and banking fraud, identity theft, ransomware as a service, phishing and social engineering, human trafficking, online recruitment and exploitation, child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSAE) and cyberviolence.
4. Use of AI tools by Justice and Security Institutions, which includes current samples of projects and initiatives across the EU, AI tools for court case management, projects and initiatives to strengthen security cooperation and criminal investigations, AI tools for specific areas such as analysis and assessment of electronic evidence, for decision making and judicial resolutions and AI tools currently being use in countries of LAC.
5. Recommendations for Action and Conclusions, the report finalizes with a set of 18 recommendations and a section with 6 conclusions which put a strong emphasis on the most relevant aspects and key points of the report that should be considered by governments, criminal justice authorities and security organizations from countries of LAC when they use and deploy AI systems to improve and enhance the administration of justice, including investigation of criminal conducts like cybercrime and crimes committed or enable by AI.
I collaborated with my expertise in the drafting of the different chapters of the report along with three experts from Spain: Miguel Bueno Benedi, Juan de Dios Gomez and Alfonso Peralta Gutierrez.
The report is available here in English and Spanish
The report will shortly include new updates, trends and developments occurring in Europe and countries of LAC during 2025, stay tuned!
Looking forward to further collaboration with EL PAcCTO 2.0 Programme in this evolving and challenging field that intersects with many other different areas like cybercrime, preservation of electronic evidence, chain of custody, crypto and blockchain, data protection, cybersecurity, international cooperation et.al.
Feel free to share it within your circle of professionals and friends, it is a very actual and relevant study.