More than 2,000 victims of human trafficking were identified and over 1,000 suspects arrested in a global operation spanning 59 countries, Interpol announced, capping a week in which law enforcement agencies on three continents moved simultaneously against transnational criminal networks. The operation, codenamed Global Chain, involved 40,000 officers and targeted groups engaged in sexual exploitation, forced labour, forced criminality and begging. Separately, US federal prosecutors in Los Angeles unsealed indictments charging 37 defendants linked to three India-based organised crime syndicates, including the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, with murder, extortion and large-scale drug trafficking.

Interpol, coordinating with Europol and the European border agency Frontex, said the trafficking operation revealed an emerging route in which Latin American victims, including minors, were smuggled into Europe for forced labour and sexual exploitation. Colombian authorities launched an airport awareness campaign about fraudulent job offers abroad, while Brazilian federal police identified 406 victims trafficked to Cambodia and forced to conduct online scams. In Belgium, 17 suspects were arrested after a network that recruited victims via social media and forced them into prostitution across Belgium and France was dismantled. The majority of identified victims were women, and 465 new investigations were opened as a result of the operation, Interpol said.

The US action, dubbed Operation Hard Ball, involved more than 50 search warrants across California, Indiana, Georgia, Canada and Spain. According to the Department of Justice, 24 people were arrested, while 10 remain fugitives. One indictment accuses Lawrence Bishnoi, already imprisoned in India, of directing a global criminal enterprise from his cell using contraband phones, ordering political assassinations, including the 2023 killing of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, British Columbia. The charges, which remain unproven, also name alleged associates Goldy Brar and Rohit Godara as key operatives in North America and Europe. Two other indictments target the Jaggu Bhagwanpuria syndicate and a Canada-based drug network allegedly run by Ravinder Singh Dhanda, accused of moving hundreds of kilograms of cocaine and methamphetamine from Southern California into Canada.

European police agency Europol separately released an analysis warning that at least 22 predominantly Latin American criminal groups are now operating inside the European Union, focusing on cocaine trafficking, human trafficking for sexual and labour exploitation, and property crimes. The report notes that groups such as Colombia’s Clan del Golfo and Brazil’s Primeiro Comando da Capital maintain close ties with European networks at cocaine entry points. In a joint Spanish-Dutch operation, police seized nearly a tonne of ecstasy hidden in a crane destined for Ghana, where it was to be exchanged for cocaine bound for Europe and South America; 15 people were arrested. Israeli authorities, meanwhile, detained four suspects accused of exporting anabolic steroids disguised as cosmetics to the United States, with undeclared revenues estimated in the millions of shekels.

All investigations remain active, with authorities in multiple jurisdictions stressing that the charges are allegations and that the accused are presumed innocent until proven guilty. The operations underscore what Interpol’s secretary general described as the “severe and lasting harm” inflicted by organised crime, while US prosecutors emphasised a zero-tolerance approach to foreign criminal enterprises operating on American soil.