On Friday, the 5th of April, Europol published a report regarding dangerous crime groups that operate in the European Union. Among them are also crime groups from Baltic States.
The Hague-based institution has published a report that analyses in depth the characteristics and activities of Europe’s worst crime groups for the first time.
Most of the crime groups mentioned in the report operate in the contraband of narcotics. Crime involving drugs are committed the most often in Belgium, Germany, Italy, Holland and Spain.
Europol’s report mentions that there are currently 113 extremely dangerous cocaine smuggling groups in Europe,
111 various drug smuggling networks, 44 marijuana smuggling networks, as well as nine dangerous synthetic drug smuggling networks. The most dangerous synthetic drug trafficking networks most often involve Armenian, Dutch, Latvian, Lithuanian and Slovak nationals and are mainly active in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, the Netherlands and Russia.
When it comes to scams, the most dangerous groups operate in online scams. “Europol” has identified 50 such groups. There are currently 34 dangerous groups involved in excise tax fraud in Europe, involving citizens of the Netherlands, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia, Spain and Ukraine, most actively carrying out their illegal activities in Latvia, Poland, Slovakia, Spain and the United Kingdom. In other types of fraud and scams using various schemes, 23 dangerous groups have been identified, while 18 groups are engaged in value added tax fraud schemes.
There are 48 crime groups that operate in organised robberies in Europe, according to analysis from Europol. 19 crime groups operate in vehicle hijacking, and 11 groups operate in other kinds of thefts.
48 criminal groups perform human trafficking involving illegal migrants. 18 groups are engaged in human trafficking for the purposes of sexual slavery. 13 groups in Europe are in engaged in human trafficking for the purposes of slavery.
Europol also concluded that the majority of the most dangerous crime groups consist of both EU and third country nationals. Each group has representatives of two to ten different countries.
For example, Eastern European networks with criminals from the Baltic States often have strong mutual ties and ties with Russian citizens. In these networks, any of these nationalities can take the lead. These criminal networks are mainly active in drug trafficking (cocaine, marijuana and synthetic drugs), money laundering, tobacco smuggling and human trafficking for labour exploitation. Their main countries of operation are Estonia, France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Russia and the United Kingdom.
In the 51 pages long report, Europol concluded that it is the strategy of crime networks to infiltrate the legal business environment in order to hide crimes and launder money.
The report mentions that 86% of dangerous crime groups use “legal business structures”, most of which operate in construction and real estate, accommodation and logistics sectors.
Crime groups readily use real estate to launder money by hiring lawyers or financial consultants, who often have no idea about the criminal origin of assets.
To smuggle drugs, commit extortion and smuggle migrants and arms, crime groups often use night clubs, Europol report mentions.
Those working in the private logistics sector, especially major European ports, are “regularly subjected” to corruption, as they can “provide limitless access to ports and port systems”.
The report especially mentions Dubai. Europol concluded that this city of the United Arab Emirates has become “a remote coordination hub, where high-ranking members and other criminals, such as mediators and organizers, live to coordinate the activities of criminal networks and hide from law enforcement”.
“Nevertheless, looking at the geographical location of high-ranking leaders of crime groups, Dubai does not stand out as a particularly safe place for them,” Europol concluded.
In the Netherlands, for example, last month a court of law sentenced Riduan Tagi, one of the country’s most wanted drug barons, to life imprisonment. He was arrested in Dubai in 2019.
Europol also warns that many of the most dangerous crime networks have existed for years. A third of them are more than ten years old. Some are even able to continue their criminal activities from prison.
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