VI High-Level Meeting of the Triangle Strategy: from seizures to dismantling criminal networks
On October 22, 2026, authorities, international organizations, academia and the private sector met in Mexico City for the VI High-Level Meeting of the Triangle Strategy, Northern Chapter. The event brought together illicit trade investigations, customs cooperation, financial intelligence and public-private collaboration around one priority: moving from seizures to dismantling criminal networks through intelligence and operational cooperation.
A regional alliance to turn information into action
The Triangle Strategy is a public-private alliance to prevent and mitigate smuggling and counterfeiting. It brings together authorities, international organizations, academia and businesses in three regional chapters —T-North, T-Central and T-South— covering 17 countries. It combines intelligence shared through the CIMA platform, high-level meetings and cooperation agreements so that information translates into investigations and operations.
The meeting emphasized that counterfeiting goes beyond economic losses: it also threatens health and safety, finances criminal organizations and sustains their routes. Logistics, payments and digital advertising form part of the infrastructure that must be understood to intervene in illicit supply chains.
Investigating networks beyond the goods
Investigating and prosecuting illicit trade requires coordination between federal and local institutions, continuous investigator training and faster communication among authorities and territorial entities. Participants proposed strengthening national and international agreements and expanding information sharing to prevent cases from remaining isolated.
The stated objective was to identify and disrupt networks that affect security, formal employment and tax revenues. The discussion also highlighted the need for more active participation by intellectual property rights holders, inspector training and access to software and databases.
Customs and economic security: targeting through intelligence
Customs cooperation faces a shared challenge: combating illicit trade without slowing legitimate trade. The report highlights advance risk analysis and targeted resources, together with industry training to recognize counterfeit medicines and other consumer goods.
Collecting information is not enough. The capacity to analyze it and turn it into useful intelligence for decision-making must be developed, supported by shared data, algorithmic analysis and predictive models.
Financial intelligence, beneficial ownership and TBML
Trade-based money laundering (TBML) may aim to move value through genuine, fictitious or manipulated transactions. Multiple jurisdictions and fragmented data create difficulties that prompted the proposal for permanent information-sharing working groups.
The discussion addressed identifying beneficial owners from company formation and throughout business operations, as well as the value of access to registries, alerts and training. The preventive approach includes identifying networks before transactions take place, tracing the origin of funds and updating typologies and prevention systems.
The event also highlighted asset forfeiture as a tool to target illicit assets and resources that finance criminal organizations, complementing criminal prosecution and the tracing of funds. Artificial intelligence was considered both a tool used by criminal networks and a resource that should be incorporated into prevention.
Public-private cooperation with operational capacity
Industry holds information that is useful to authorities, although sharing it swiftly remains a challenge. Joint action mechanisms were proposed, involving digital platforms and actors in logistics, payments and advertising. Inspector training, databases on actors and networks, and alerts about irregular corporate structures form part of this contribution.
Conclusions and proposals for the way forward
The report records proposals for permanent information-sharing working groups, national and international agreements, continuous training, the use of private-sector databases and success indicators beyond seizures, alongside asset forfeiture. These lines of work express the need to turn cooperation into sustained investigative and operational capacity.
Learn more about the Triangle Strategy and its approach to regional cooperation.
This summary follows the Chatham House Rule: the ideas and conclusions discussed at the meeting are not attributed to any individual or institution.
Read the full event report
Download the official document to explore the sessions, key messages and proposals from the VI High-Level Meeting, Northern Chapter.
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