Nicolas Cage promotes international response to organized crime

Oscar-winning U.S. actor Nicolas Cage addressed a U.N. anti-crime conference here Thursday, urging a stronger international response to transnational organized crime.

Organized crime was too big for communities or even states to confront on their own, and the U.N. Convention against Transnational Organized Crime was a powerful tool to combat the crime, Cage said at 5th Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.

A Goodwill Ambassador for Global Justice designated by U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said he had played many parts on screen but being the goodwill ambassador was the most challenging and meaningful.

Police officers, prosecutors, judges, government workers and other "extraordinary ordinary people" are the real heroes, he said.

Cage said he had met many child victims such as survivors of sex trafficking and former child soldiers whose stories were heart-wrenching.

He said it was easy to be overwhelmed by the statistics related to transnational organized crime.

"The colossal amounts of money criminals make from their evil enterprises, the untold numbers of victims whose lives have been damaged or even snuffed out because of organized crime," he said.

Cage has starred in more than 60 movies, including the 2005 thriller Lord of War, in which he played an arms dealer believed to be modeled on Russian Viktor Bout, whom the U.S. is currently trying to extradite from Thailand to face arms smuggling allegations.

Source: Xinhua