• Operational Overlap: Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) often use the same routes, actors, and methods to move both people and weapons. Several federal cases have included multiple charges of narcotics trafficking, firearms trafficking, human trafficking, and murder-for-hire. In one case in Alaska, a perpetrator who trafficked women and girls for commercial sexual exploitation on and near U.S. Department of War military bases also trafficked weapons and drugs and had ties to U.S. street gangs as well as international criminal networks. Gang members involved in sex trafficking have also been involved in other criminal enterprises. To date, the DOJ has prosecuted almost two hundred cases of street gangs, prison gangs, and outlaw motorcycle gangs for sex trafficking.


• Human Trafficking as a National Security Threat. A team of U.S. Secret Service and U.S. military members was detailed for pre-visit security for President Obama’s visit to Cartagena, Columbia. In the evening, they visited a strip club, drank heavily, and then paid women for sex in their hotel rooms. On the military side, the men faced criminal charges and courts-martial, dishonorable discharges, and revocation of security clearances. A Congressional inquiry found that it was a clear security breach that threatened the U.S. President and U.S. officials. Purchase of sex leaves soldiers vulnerable to honey-pot schemes – deliberate traps that use sex to create national security threats.


• Human Trafficking Linked to Drug Trafficking. A father noticed his son acting oddly and suspected sexual exploitation by an adult male. He contacted his state Attorney General (AG) Office. The young teen told the AG about a powerful shot-caller in a drug trafficking ring. He was raping young boys, selling them for sex, and forcing them to be mules for his drug trafficking network. The investigation led to the discovery of 250 additional victims. Several were nine years old when they were first abused; the youngest was seven years old. Victims said they were recruited with money, candy, and trips to the local video arcade and then forced into trafficking with threats of harm to family. This case was one of the largest human trafficking cases in the U.S. Other large sex trafficking rings have also been implicated in drug and arms trafficking.


• Human Trafficking Linked to Foreign National Terrorist Threats. In 2025, the U.S. designated certain Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs). These include MS-13, Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), Northeast Cartel, Sinaloa Cartel, Tren De Aragua, and the Gulf Cartel. A number of these terrorist organizations are known to use human trafficking as a means of financing their organizational activities. These include MS-13, Tren de Aragua, CJNG, the Sinaloa Cartel and the Gulf Cartel. Over three dozen high profile federal cases of human trafficking have been prosecuted and ended with successful convictions. Dozens of other investigations are ongoing.


• Human Trafficking Linked to Arms Trafficking. U.S. law enforcement agencies note a nexus between human trafficking and arms trafficking, and there have been specific cases where multiple charges for these crimes were brought. While they are often discussed as separate highly profitable criminal enterprises, these two crimes are both part of a modus operandi for Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) and their convergence turns human trafficking into an irregular threat within the broader context of irregular warfare. This creates a direct, multifaceted threat to U.S. warfighters, impacting force protection, operational security, and situational awareness in domestic and foreign theaters.


• Honey Trap Associated with Waste, Fraud and Abuse. A company's CEO bribed over 30 uniformed officers with half a million dollars in cash, travel expenses, luxury items, parties, and prostitutes, in return for classified material. The classified information included the movements of U.S. ships and submarines, confidential contracting information, and details about active law enforcement investigations. He then exploited the intelligence for illicit profit.

The Army Protection Program provides this information:

In the world of counterintelligence, "honeypot" and "honey trap" are terms for a tried-and-true method of espionage that leverages romantic or sexual relationships to compromise a target and extract sensitive information. While the terms are often used interchangeably, there is a subtle distinction.

Defining the Terms: Honeypot vs. Honey Trap

A honey trap refers to the overall operation or practice of using a person (the "trapper" or "agent") to feign romantic or sexual interest in a target to gain their trust and access to classified information. This tactic is also referred to as "sexpionage." The agent in a honey trap is sometimes called a "swallow" if female or a "raven" if male.

A honeypot can be seen as a component of a honey trap, referring to the enticing bait or the scenario created to lure the target. In a broader sense, especially in the digital age, a "honeypot" can also refer to a decoy computer system designed to attract and trap hackers, allowing security professionals to study their methods. In the context of human intelligence, however, it is the romantic or sexual bait.

How Honey Traps Work in Army Counterintelligence

Counterintelligence agencies use honey traps both offensively and defensively. Offensively, they can be deployed to gather intelligence from foreign officials or individuals with access to valuable information.

Defensively, they are a significant concern that agencies like the US Army Counterintelligence Command actively warn their personnel about.

The process of a honey trap typically involves several stages:

• Target Selection: An individual with access to valuable information is identified.
• Profiling: The agent gathers intelligence on the target's habits, vulnerabilities, and preferences to tailor their approach.
• Initial Contact: A "chance" encounter is engineered to seem natural.
• Building Rapport: The agent builds trust and an emotional connection over time.
• Exploitation: Once trust is established, the agent extracts information or creates a compromising situation for blackmail.
• Exit Strategy: The agent disengages without raising suspicion.

Historical and Modern Examples

The use of honey traps is a long-standing practice in espionage.

• Mata Hari: During World War I, the exotic dancer Mata Hari was accused of being a German spy who seduced French officers to gain military secrets.
• Cold War "Romeo Spies": East Germany's Stasi intelligence service, under Markus Wolf, used male agents known as "Romeo spies" to seduce and extract information from lonely West German women in positions of power.
• Clayton Lonetree: A US Marine security guard at the American embassy in Moscow, Clayton Lonetree, was seduced by a female KGB translator in 1987. He was then blackmailed into providing documents to the KGB.

The Digital Evolution of the Honey Trap

In the 21st century, honey traps have largely moved into the digital realm, using social media and dating apps to target individuals.

This "digital honey trapping" is a low-cost, low-risk method for intelligence agencies.

• Fake Online Profiles: Operatives create convincing fake profiles on platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Tinder to initiate contact with targets.
• Social Engineering: Agents use the vast amount of personal information available online to create highly personalized and manipulative approaches.
• Malware and Hacking: Flirtatious messages and provocative content can be embedded with malware to hack into a target's devices and steal data.
• Recent Cases: There have been numerous recent cases involving military personnel and government contractors being targeted by foreign intelligence operatives through online dating sites and social media.

For instance, a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel was charged with conspiring to transmit classified information to a person he met on a dating website.

Governments and military branches, including the U.S. Army, issue regular warnings to their personnel about the dangers of honey traps and provide training on how to recognize and report suspicious online interactions.

These warnings often highlight the fact that adversaries can be anyone, anywhere in the world, and that an attractive online stranger showing a sudden interest in a service member's work should be a major red flag.

Sextortion is a type of blackmail. Sexual extortion, or “sextortion,” is a cybercrime perpetrated against unwitting victims who are approached in casual conversation via social media and then seduced into engaging in online sexual activities. After fulfilling the sexual requests, which are recorded without the victim’s knowledge or consent, the victim is threatened with public exposure and embarrassment if they do not pay a specified sum of money to the perpetrator, usually through a wire transfer or subscription to pornographic websites.

Service members possess security clearances, meaning they may have knowledge of military tactics, training, and other operational security items of interest to potential adversaries.

A case can be made that Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Transnational Criminal Organizations are irregular adversaries, and that like terrorism, human trafficking is a tactic they use to finance their operations and to gain control of a target population, part of a country, or even an entire country.

Irregular Warfare (IW):

• DoD Instruction 3000.07, entitled, “Irregular Warfare,” (2025) irregular warfare (IW) is defined as “a form of warfare where states and non-state actors campaign to assure or coerce states or other groups through indirect, non-attributable, or asymmetric activities.”
• Irregular Warfare Annex to the National Defense Strategy (2020), states, “Our competitors have operationalized clandestine criminal activity and predatory economic behavior as components of their own approach to irregular warfare.” The Annex defines irregular warfare as “a struggle among state and non-state actors to influence populations and affect legitimacy” and notes irregular warfare “favors indirect and asymmetric approaches.”
• “Defense Primer: What Is Irregular Warfare?” (Congressional Research Service, 2024) Discusses missions of IW, Operations in IW, asymmetric warfare and IW, irregular forces, Special Operations Command, and IW in the National Security Strategy and the National Defense Authorization Act.
• “Irregular Warfare: Countering Irregular Threats Joint Operating Concept (JOC) v. 2.0” (2010) defining the Irregular Warfare Problem: “Adaptive adversaries such as terrorists, insurgents, and transnational criminal networks as well as states present irregular threats that are not readily countered by military means alone.” It states, “Irregular threats including terrorists, insurgents, and criminal networks are enmeshed in the population and are increasingly empowered by astute use of communications, cyberspace, and technology to extend their reach regionally and globally.”

Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) are foreign organizations that are designated by the Secretary of State in accordance with section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1189), as amended.

• FTO designations play a critical role in our fight against terrorism and are an effective means of curtailing support for terrorist activities and pressuring groups to get out of the terrorism business.

Transnational Criminal Organization includes— (A) any organization designated as a significant transnational criminal organization under part 590 of title 31, Code of Federal Regulations ; (B) any of the organizations known as— (i) the Sinaloa Cartel; (ii) the Jalisco New Generation Cartel; (iii) the Gulf Cartel; (iv) the Los Zetas Cartel; (v) the Juarez Cartel; (vi) the Tijuana Cartel; (vii) the Beltran-Leyva Cartel; or (viii) La Familia Michoacana; or (C) any successor organization to an organization described in subparagraph (B) or as otherwise determined by the President. (21 U.S. Code § 2341)

Significant Transnational Criminal Organization means a group of persons that includes one or more foreign persons; that engages in or facilitates an ongoing pattern of serious criminal activity involving the jurisdictions of at least two foreign states, or one foreign state and the United States; and that threatens the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States. (31 CFR § 590.312)

Transnational Organized Crime means self-perpetuating associations of individuals who operate transnationally for the purpose of obtaining power, influence, monetary, or commercial gains, wholly or in part by illegal means, while protecting their activities through a pattern of corruption or violence or through a transnational organization structure and the exploitation of transnational commerce or communication mechanisms. (10 U.S. Code § 284)

Recruitment or Use of Child Soldiers – Under 8 U.S.C. 1182(3)(G), any alien who has engaged in the recruitment or use of child soldiers in violation of 18 U.S.C. 2422 [Recruitment or use of child soldiers] is considered to have committed terrorist activities and is inadmissible to the U.S.