rad­hi­ca.sookraj@gar­dian.co.tt]rad­hi­ca.sookraj@gar­dian.co.tt

ARI­ZONA — As the Unit­ed States pre­pares for a surge in glob­al trav­el ahead of the up­com­ing FI­FA World Cup, of­fi­cials say stronger col­lab­o­ra­tion across agen­cies and coun­tries is crit­i­cal to com­bat­ing pass­port and visa fraud, which of­ten links to transna­tion­al crim­i­nal net­works.

That is ac­cord­ing to Jeff Kraus, a spe­cial agent with the U.S. De­part­ment of State’s Diplo­mat­ic Se­cu­ri­ty Ser­vice, who said co­or­di­nat­ed ef­forts are cen­tral to de­tect­ing and dis­rupt­ing fraud be­fore it reach­es Amer­i­can bor­ders.