![]() However, revenues from the online trade of illegal goods and services are growing and may surpass those of other criminal rackets. These European syndicates delve mainly in drug trafficking, organized theft of property, migrant smuggling, trafficking of human beings for exploitation and excise tax evasion schemes. The groups includes the “Mafia-style” Italian clans (the Sicilian Mafia, the ’Ndrangheta of Calabria and the Camorra of Naples), networks based in Eastern Europe and Albania and outlaw motorcycle gangs. Most of the suspects, 60 percent, are residents of an EU member country.Įuropean police have recognized that crime gangs take advantage of gaps in law enforcement resources in the 28-nation EU, and law enforcement must consolidate and exchange information immediately, as organized crime groups evolve, become more complex, flexible and adapt quickly.Įurope’s crime cliques range “from large ‘traditional’ groups to smaller and loose networks supported by individual criminals, who are hired and collaborate spontaneously” or in an ad hoc manner, Europol reported. Recent joint actions coordinated by Europol include an operation by Spanish National Police and Bulgarian Judicial Police that took down a money laundering, burglary and drug sales ring involving Bosnian, Spanish, Colombian and Bulgarian nationals, resulting in 14 arrests in Spain and two in Bulgaria.Įuropol is currently investigating more 5,000 organized crime groups representing more than 180 different nationalities. The gathering, hosted by Europol and Italy’s Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate (DIA), is the first major step in a process that began last November with the launch of the Operational Network, or a 24-month project funded by Europe’s governing European Commission.ĮU member nations, working through Europol, can use the Network to deploy specialized police units and third-party investigators to probe Mafia-style organized groups across borders. ![]() Over recent years, organized crime has not stopped evolving.” “This is the result of long-term development. “Currently, organized crime constitutes the highest risk for EU internal security,” Europol officers said in a statement. Some experts at the conference, titled “Countering Strategies Against Transnational Organized Crime,” declared that the criminal underworld is a larger threat to Europe than terrorism. In addition to well-known crime groups from southern and eastern Europe, syndicates from Asia, Africa and South America are also vying for shares in Europe’s illicit business, valued at 110 billion euros ($124 billion) annually, conference officials said. ![]() “Europol’s report ‘Does Crime Still Pay?’ concluded that from 2012 to 2014 just 2.1 percent of the estimated proceeds of crime were seized or frozen and only 1.1 percent ultimately confiscated across the EU,” according to Europol. The two-day conference, held in The Hague, underlined recent findings by the EU’s law enforcement agency Europol that despite many years of effort, authorities intercept only a tiny fraction of the billions of euros gained each year by European organized crime outfits. Many of Europe’s top police officers were in the Netherlands last week attending a high-level conference focused on doing a more effective job in fighting international organized crime, described as “the highest risk” to security within the European Union. Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency, says organized crime is a bigger problem than terrorism. ![]()
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