During the Cold War, concerns about a crime-terror nexus were relatively insignificant. However, at the end of the Cold War, the international environment emerged and subsequently as a result of the fall of the Soviet Union, created conditions that supported the development of criminal and terrorist organizations into increasingly sophisticated and international entities. The result was the emergence of transnational organized crime and international networked terrorist groups. The 1990's can be described as the decade in which the crime-terror nexus was consolidated. Two traditionally separate phenomena: transnational organized crime and terrorism began to reveal many operational and organizational similarities. This article discusses the various components of the crime-terror continuum. One consistent and relatively easily identifiable factor is criminality. Every point necessitates some degree of involvement with criminal activities. Understanding the crime-terror continuum expands the security tools that a state can employ in order to respond to the ever-evolving threats of transnational organized crime and terrorism. Notes, references