Our Vision
A world wide web free of organized crime and extremist content.
About Us
Every day, members of the Alliance to Counter Crime Online log onto social media platforms to track, record and report crime and terror activity. The scale of what we have recorded — from drug sales to child sex trafficking — is horrifying. With few resources, this scrappy group of academics and investigators has come together to take on the richest, most powerful tech firms in the world. Our experts track a wide range of crime sectors including wildlife, drugs, antiquities and human trafficking, as well as various frauds and scams. We produce investigative reports on how crime and terror networks have weaponized social media, providing the evidence we develop to regulators, lawmakers and the public.
Our Mission
Investigate, educate and advocate for change.
Founding Members
Gretchen’s expertise is in researching and mapping transnational organized crime networks, and pinpointing ways to defeat them. She has worked with U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special Operations Command as well as multiple conservation groups. Gretchen co-chaired an OECD Task Force on flighting wildlife crime, and authored the groundbreaking book, Seeds of Terror, about the Taliban’s role in the Afghan heroin trade.
Amr was educated in the UK, reading Archaeology of Western Asiatics at University College, London (UCL), and graduating with a doctoral degree in 1991. He was the founder and Director of the Scientific and Conservation Laboratories at the General Department of Antiquities and Museums (1999-2004) and taught at the University of Damascus until 2006.
Damien was most recently a postdoctoral fellow (2017 – 2019) within the Osteoarchaeological Research Laboratory, Department of Archaeology & Classical Studies, Stockholm University. During 2014 – 2016, he held the Stable Isotope Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Smithsonian’s Museum Conservation Institute/Division of Anthropology
Kathleen is a leading authority on transnational organized crime networks in sub-Saharan Africa. She has developed and provided on-the-job training to analysts across the continent, instructing them in complex link and network analysis. Previously, Kathleen consulted to the U.S. intelligence, law enforcement, and military communities. Her work focused on illicit networks, money laundering and financial analytics
Katie is an anthropologist and research analyst and an affiliated researcher with The Day After Heritage Protection Initiative (TDA-HPI). She is also the Co-Director of the ATHAR Project, an investigative study digging into the digital underworld of transnational trafficking, terrorism financing, and organized crime. Her work focuses on the trafficking and destruction of cultural property and its connections to transnational crime and terrorism in the Middle East and North Africa, focusing on the role of social media and new technologies.
Shawn is a professor in the Department of History at Carleton University. He teaches classes on digital history and its methodologies, and ancient history. He received his Ph.D. in Archaeology from the School of Human and Environmental Sciences at the University of Reading in 2002. In the intervening years, he worked professionally as a heritage consultant, a teacher, and an entrepreneur.
Investigators
Tim Ken Mackey is the Director of the Global Health Policy Institute, an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Global Public Health at UC San Diego School of Medicine, the Director of Healthcare Research and Policy at UC San Diego – Extension, and is the Director for Healthcare Research and Policy at UC San Diego – Extension.
Dr. Sam Hardy is Adjunct Professor at the American University of Rome and Honorary Research Associate at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. His doctoral research focused on the law, ethics and politics of cultural heritage work; destruction of cultural property and propaganda; and trafficking of antiquities in the Cyprus Conflict.
Dan studied anthropology and archaeology at the University of California, Berkeley, and at the University of Aix-Marseille in France, obtaining his Ph.D. in 1981, and has lectured at UC Berkeley, University of Nairobi, University of Paris X and Oxford University, focusing on past and present human ecology and evolution.
Fiona MacLeod is a seasoned investigative environmental journalist who is pioneering the use of new media tools to expose eco-offences in Southern Africa, and to track offenders around the world. Macleod won the prestigious SAB EnviroMedia Written Media Award in 2018 for collaborative multimedia journalism projects, and the Print and Online Award in October 2014 for the Oxpeckers Fellowship project.
Patricia began tackling the issue of illegal cheetah trafficking in November of 2005, when she was working as the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF)’s assistant director for strategic communications. At the time, little was known about the magnitude of this illegal trade. It was then that, together with CCF’s executive director…
Eileen Carey is an expert in online drug trafficking. She has leveraged her background in cybersecurity and public relations to hold technology platforms accountable for their role in the fentanyl crisis. In 2012, Eileen became aware of the scale of online drug sales working in digital brand protection, which included combatting counterfeit pharmaceutical sales over the Internet
Nilda M. Garcia is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Political Science Department at Texas A & M International University. Dr. Garcia received her PhD in International Studies from the University of Miami in 2018 with a concentration in International Relations Theory and International Political Economy. She also holds a MBA in International Trade and a BA in Business Administration from Texas A & M International University.
Duncan Jepson is founder and managing director of Liberty Shared (previously Liberty Asia), a leading global anti-trafficking NGO working on counter modern slavery and wildlife trafficking. Established in 2011, Liberty Shared won a Google Ideas Award in 2013. With the support of the U.S. State Department, Liberty Shared has developed and implemented the only victim case management system for NGOs to manage, store and analyse victim data and to create larger data sets on trafficking.
Dr Susan Cheyne has been carrying out biological conservation research in Indonesia since 2002. Her focus is on primates, felids and forest ecology. Susan is a co-director of the Borneo Nature Foundation and BRINCC. Her interests also lie in the use of non-timber forest products by people especially bush meat hunting and in environmental education within Indonesia and around the world…
Bryan Denny is a founding member of Advocating Against Romance Scammers. He served as an officer in the U.S. Army for 26 years, retiring at the rank of Colonel. In 2016, Bryan’s photos were stolen and used to build thousands of fake profiles. Now, he is directly involved in the fight to expose scammers by educating potential victims and changing legislation to keep organized crime off of the Internet.
Kathy is the expert Facebook, newspapers and TV shows, congressional staff, and multiple international agencies call on for information about online romance scams. She has logged over 3,800 volunteer hours helping those whose identity has been stolen, as well as the women and men who have fallen victim to the scammers.
David Ibsen serves as Executive Director for the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), which works to combat the threat of extremist ideology particularly by exposing extremists’ misuse of financial, business, and communications networks.
Teale is the Director of Research for OceansAsia, a marine conservation organization dedicated to combating illegal fishing in Asia through the use of investigation and research. He is an expert in illegal fishing, and his work has played a central role in efforts to redefine illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing as a form of transnational organized crime.
Nina Jackel is a global activist known for effecting change for animals around the world through her non-profit organization, Lady Freethinker. As the founder of LFT, Jackel leads numerous divisions at the org. that expose cruel and illegal activities through undercover operations.
A former federal criminal investigator, Kay is an expert in researching, analyzing, and documenting online review fraud. She has identified thousands of fake reviews across Google, Yelp, Facebook, and other platforms, and has compiled evidence of review fraud conducted by hundreds of businesses.
Rowan is the Director of the World Parrot Trust’s Africa Conservation Programme, which works to address threats to parrots in Africa with a particular focus on tackling overexploitation driven by the pet trade.
Mandy is an expert in wildlife and environmental crime. She has worked for the U.S. Department of State and the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GITOC) after receiving her law degree specializing in environmental law at Lewis & Clark College of Law.
Shubert Mwarabu is a Tanzanian singer, and wildlife conservation and humanitarian advocate. In 2015, after being horrified by images of poached elephant carcasses, he launched a successful nation-wide campaign called “OKOA Tembo wa Tanzania”, or “Save Tanzania’s Elephants”, that combines education with music and performative arts.
Jaime Puerta is a Marine Corps veteran, and small business owner in California who lost his 16 year old son, Daniel, when he ingested an illicit Fentanyl pill that he purchased on Snapchat.
Amy is a yoga & fitness instructor, small business owner, President of Alexander Neville Foundation (ANF), and mother of two from Laguna Niguel. Alexander, her first-born son, lost his life from a fake prescription pill made of illicit fentanyl purchased via social medial.
Signy Arnason is the Associate Executive Director of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (C3P) and oversees the day-to-day operations of C3P’s frontline services and many programs, including the development and international implementation of Project Arachnid.