Drugs
Catherine De Bolle, the CEO of Europol, warns of an increase in violence by young criminals in the drugs environment. “Drug trafficking is a major problem in the EU,” the Europol chief said on Monday during an information session for parliamentary delegations.
The European police organization Europol indicates that it has evidence that drug gangs use young people in their criminal activities in the EU. “Entire families sometimes live on the income that young people earn within the criminal group, because there is no other income.” De Bolle speaks of a “very worrying trend”.
There are “very young people who use violence and join gangs to commit murders for hire,” according to De Bolle. “Hirred murders committed by young people are less predictable than murders committed by older people.” Drug crime is the activity of many criminal gangs, which often operate internationally.
“A third of criminal gangs are involved in drug trafficking,” says De Bolle. “The production of drugs by criminal networks in the EU remains a major concern – specifically for cannabis and synthetic drugs. We see that the EU is a destination continent, but also a production continent. This is mainly made possible by corruption and criminal infiltration.”
During the European meeting, De Bolle responded to a question from N-VA MP Nadia Sminate. The European police organization is not powerless, but international organizations are difficult to disrupt. They are wealthy and see weaknesses in national security systems.
“We established an economic and financial drug unit in 2020 because we believe that it is very important to hunt the money of the criminal gangs. We also have a specialized service that deals with corruption. We notice that we are receiving more and more questions from member states to support them in investigations,” says De Bolle.
In that case, Europol sends experts to assist police forces and provide international clout. They map out how the criminal organization operates and contact third countries. These are countries that drug offenders consider safe havens. The approach is working, says Europol, which indicates that the number of arrests and seizures is increasing.
“We are also going after high value targets,” De Bolle added. “These are not just the people at the head of the criminal organization. but also people with specific expertise, such as money laundering. We were recently able to arrest a specialized money launderer in Athens.”
