Since the COVID-19 pandemic, crime has precipitously skyrocketed in cities across the country, as demonstrated by a recent report published by Our America. One crime in particular, retail theft, has destroyed businesses across the country, hurting consumers and businesses alike.

While shoplifting is nothing new, there is more than meets the eye with this recent trend. Progressive prosecutors who refuse to prosecute retail theft are enabling Mexican drug cartels, international money launderers, and other highly sophisticated criminal enterprises.

Leftwing reformers hold out the late surge in shoplifting as a non-problem and have refused to prosecute — or even denounce — smash-and-grabs and other brazen thefts. This policy choice, championed by prosecutors aligned with George Soros, fails to appreciate the serious role organized retail theft plays in transnational crime.

It’s a grave mistake to wave organized retail crimes away as a problem of corporate balance sheets. Much like a hub and spoke, organized retail crime is linked to the most heinous transnational criminal organizations. Investigators and industry experts are finding that these Mission Impossible style crimes are a gateway to the world’s worst criminals.