Transnational organized crime is far more than a law enforcement issue, affecting everything from the environment to public health, education and conflict. Meanwhile, big infrastructure projects like China’s Belt and Road Initiative have the potential to widen the scale of the problem even further, as criminal enterprises can exploit the projects to create new trafficking routes and connect one vulnerable area to one another more readily. Mark Shaw, director of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, discusses how his organization’s research on the Belt and Road Initiative has improved our understanding of illicit trafficking and explores how U.S. security assistance can better help countries address the multi-faceted impacts of organized crime.