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Mexico Ranks Third Globally for Organized Crime, GI‑TOC 2025 Index Finds

The report cites expansive illicit markets alongside weak institutional resilience, enabling cartels and state‑embedded actors to thrive.

Overview

  • Mexico’s overall criminality score rose to 7.68 out of 10, up from 7.57, placing it behind only Myanmar and Colombia.
  • Researchers say Mexico participates in 13 of 15 global illicit markets and leads the markets component with a score of about 8.27.
  • Institutional resilience was rated 4.50 out of 10, ranking 111th of 193 countries, with shortcomings in governance, territorial control, transparency, and support for victims and witnesses.
  • The index describes entrenched networks that include the Sinaloa Cartel, CJNG, Santa Rosa de Lima, private financial actors, foreign partners, and colluding officials identified as state‑embedded actors.
  • GI‑TOC urges coordinated anti‑corruption efforts, modernized intelligence, international cooperation, prevention policies, and protections for victims and journalists to close the widening gap between criminal reach and state capacity.