Importing Crime: EU faces outside threats

The European police agency’s Organized Crime Threat Assessment 2009 noted that three out of the five criminal hubs in the EU were receiving drugs, illegal immigrants, women for human trafficking and cigarettes from outside the Union.

In the southeast, which the report qualified as “a very active criminal hub,” Ukraine, the Balkans and Turkey feed drugs and cigarettes to the Union. While opiates have long travelled the “Balkan Route” from Asia to Western Europe, the report noted that cocaine trafficking was growing in the region, particularly at one Romanian port.

“The significance of the port of Constanta in cocaine traffic is growing, and cocaine seems to be increasingly arriving into the EU via Turkey and/or the Balkans,” the report stated.

Established links

The northeast hub is also affected by “feeders” outside EU borders – Russia, the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, Ukraine and Belarus.

“Illicit flows may be traced from the east towards the west (women for sexual exploitation, illegal immigrants, cigarettes, counterfeit goods, synthetic drugs precursors and heroin) but also vice versa (cocaine and cannabis products),” the report said. Lithuanian groups have a central role in the region, dealing in cannabis, cocaine, heroin, counterfeit goods, stolen vehicles, cigarettes, arms and human beings.

The southwest hub on the Iberian Peninsula, with its cocaine trade, human trafficking and illegal immigration, appears to have a “feeder” in West Africa and other parts of the African continent, according to the report. 

The other EU crime hubs may not be susceptible to feeders, but they have their own problems. The northwest – the UK, Ireland, Scandinavia – is a drug distribution center. The southern hub – Italy – is a hub of cigarette smuggling, euro counterfeiting and of the smuggling and distribution of counterfeit goods. 

EU-wide, the most significant crimes are drug trafficking, human trafficking, illegal immigration, fraud, counterfeiting and money laundering.

-- Beth Kampschror