On 12 April the police cooperation agency, Europol, published its new report on the analysis of serious crime threats in the EU. This SOCTA (Serious and organised crime threat assessment) report, published every 4 years, mentions in particular a “continued expansion and evolution of threats” with “potential long-term effects from the Covid-19 pandemic”, which has created new conditions ripe for criminal groups, notably in online fraud or cyber attacks.
The main elements of the report indicate that almost 40% of the criminal networks active in the EU are involved in the trade of illegal drugs and that about 60% of the criminal networks active in the EU use violence as part of their criminal activities.
The use of corruption and the abuse of legal business structures are key features of serious and organised crime in Europe, the report notes.
Furthermore, 2/3 of criminals use bribery on a regular basis and more than 80% of criminal networks use legal business structures.
For Europol, serious and organised crime has “never before posed such a high threat level to the EU and its citizens as it does today” and the Covid-19 pandemic and the potential economic and social fallout that is expected to follow threaten to create the ideal conditions for organised crime to spread and take hold. In other words, criminal groups could very well take over businesses that are weakened by the pandemic and expand their activities.
“Human trafficking and exploitation, migrant smuggling, online and offline fraud and property crime” are the main threats today, the report notes.
Europol is also concerned with trafficking in Covid-19 vaccines or fake tests and drug trafficking, particularly cocaine, which is also fuelling the growth of corruption and is also reaching record levels.
Link to the report: https://bit.ly/3uFL9xx (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)