Organised crime in Europe is thriving, says Europol

THE HYDRA was a fearsome beast. Lop off one of the legendary monster’s many heads and two would grow in its place.

So it is scarcely reassuring that the EU’s police agency, Europol, should pick the Hydra to symbolise the threat Europe faces from organised crime. In its latest Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment, published on April 12th, in a passage that exudes fatalism, the authors write: "The experience of law enforcement authorities has shown that even successful and far-reaching disruption of criminal networks has little long-term consequence for the overall activities of organised crime…removing one head does not kill the monster."

The threat assessment, published once every four years, is a corrective to the perhaps naive view that, as Europe becomes more prosperous, serious crime will fade away. Some forms of reliably measurable crime are indeed diminishing. The murder rates in all but four of the EU’s member states were lower in 2018 than in 2009. On average, they were down by more than a quarter. But organised crime, which covers a wide range of activities from the smuggling of narcotics, arms and human beings to counterfeiting and various forms of fraud and cybercrime, is largely clandestine and invisible. Changes in the volume of organised crime are far harder to assess. But what evidence there is suggests it is an EU growth industry (drug seizures, for example, indicate that cocaine is entering Europe in what the report calls "unprecedented quantities").

That is of concern to more than just the police, because, as the report points out, organised crime undermines society. It leads to the corruption of politicians and officials. It can be used to finance terrorism. And it distorts markets in numerous ways: companies that are infiltrated or acquired by organised criminals often enjoy unfair advantages not only because of access to zero-cost financing but also, in some cases, through the ability to win contracts by means of intimidation.

Two developments in the past 30-odd years have made this a golden age for mobsters. One is globalisation. People, including criminals, and money, including the profits of crime, can move across borders with unprecedented ease (though less so since the start of the pandemic). In the EU, according to Europol, about half the mobsters are from elsewhere and around 70% of criminal networks are active in more than three countries. Money laundering has become more widespread and sophisticated in Europe than had previously been realised, says the report: “professional money launderers have established a parallel underground financial system…isolated from any oversight mechanisms.”

The other development is digitalisation. The darknet and cybercurrencies in particular allow organised criminals to trade undisturbed in the shadows. Digitalisation has also created entirely new forms of crime, from exploiting children sexually online to “smishing” (using text messages to elicit sensitive personal information such as bank-account passwords).

Cybercrime networks often turn out to involve geeks and hackers very different from the popular stereotype of organised criminals. But there is still plenty of room for gangsters of the old school. Last June police discovered a fully equipped torture chamber. It consisted of converted shipping containers that had been soundproofed. Inside the containers were devices that could be used to inflict unbearable pain. One had a dentist’s chair with straps for arms and feet. All had handcuffs attached to the floors and ceilings. Yet this grisly complex was not in some low-life district of Palermo. It was found by Dutch police at Wouwse Plantage, near the border with Belgium and less than 100km (60 miles) from the headquarters of the European Commission and the European Parliament in Brussels.