In 2021, an FBI informant learned of an assassination plot involving an offer of $300,000 to kill former National Security Advisor John Bolton. The plot was linked to Shahram Poursafi from Iran's IRGC. In a separate incident, the DEA uncovered a plot targeting a U.S. citizen orchestrated by an Indian government employee and a narcotics trafficker. Such incidents reflect a trend toward states utilizing criminal actors for political violence, which is becoming more normalized in global geopolitics, historically seen in covert operations by states and organized crime.
In the fall of 2021, an FBI informant received a chilling offer: $300,000 to assassinate former U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton. The would-be hitman posed as a drug cartel enforcer.
These plots represent a glimpse into a darker playbook: sovereign states outsourcing political violence, intimidation, and destabilization to criminal intermediaries.
From mafia boss Charles 'Lucky' Luciano's entanglements with U.S. Naval Intelligence in World War II to the CIA's notorious dealings, history is replete with pragmatic marriages of convenience.
The strategic use of criminals in geopolitics is neither novel nor exclusive to autocracies, and these activities are increasingly becoming strategically normalized and globally diffused.
#political-violence #geopolitics #criminal-intermediaries #state-sponsored-violence #outsourcing-terrorism
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