Europol maps out 821 most threatening crime groups

Deutsche Welle :
The European Union’s law enforcement agency Europol on Friday published an analysis of 821 criminal groups that it said posed a major threat to the bloc’s internal security.
The Hague-based agency – which wants the study to be a springboard for more finely tuned investigations – found that crime networks vary significantly in structure, activity, territorial control, and longevity.
Some 25,000 individuals were found to be involved in the identified networks, which were selected for the threat they were thought to pose. In terms of membership counts for each group, these were thought to most often range between 8 and 38 members.
The syndicates were active in a range of crime areas, such as the drug trade, fraud, property crime, migrant smuggling and human trafficking. Overall, 82% of organizations listed indulged in only one main criminal activity. Narcotics distribution stood out as a key activity, with half of the most threatening criminal networks involved in drug trafficking either exclusively or as part of a wider portfolio. A third had drug trafficking as their sole focus.
Within the EU, drug trafficking operations were most often located in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain. Those businesses most commonly had links with syndicates outside the EU in Albania, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and the United Kingdom.
A key measure of threat was the network’s ability to infiltrate the legal business world to create tools and fronts to disguise their crimes, with 86% of the most threatening criminal networks using legal business structures. Such links can also be used to launder criminal profits, the authors said. Criminal enterprises operate across borders, with more than three-quarters of the groups present or active in two to seven countries.
Leaders of the most threatening criminal networks were said to ensure close control over business, with crime bosses usually preferring to stay close to their operations.