Europol Report “Evaluation of threats from severe and organized crime in EU 2025” points out “DNA mutation” organized crime, alarming factor of destabilization of democratic political systems through war and new technologies.
The international mafia has fully involved in the game fight for power. According to Europol, the EU Police Agency, traditional criminal activities have become a weapon through the Association of Gangsters with “enemy state actors such as Russia and Belarus”, they state European officials.
Catherine de Bolle, EUROPOLE Executive Director, said for Euronews:
“Criminal organizations are agile, they do not know the boundaries and work on destabilization. If they see the opportunity for cooperation with the state actor, if they benefit them, if it gives them to access the digital or cyber infrastructure of that country, and can then use that environment for your own profit.”
The new report on threats from severe and organized crime (Soca) points out that organized crime is no longer an entity based and rooted at the national level, as the former mafia. Instead, he became completely globalized thanks to the new technologies and the Cyber space that does not know the borders.
“We see Cyber criminals who work in criminal infrastructure for the state actor. And at night, they perform their own criminal activities for personal profits. So they also work for foreign actors and for their own benefit,” says Catherine de Bolle.
According to Europol, transnational organized crime de facto turned into a private military company of hybrid warrants, rustling their services and illegal secret networks to state actors. Another significant factor that changes the geography of security threats for democracy is an artificial intelligence, which has become a key tools of hybrid waters and a large extent contributes to the change of security landscape, wiping the boundary between criminal activities and enemy operations.
Due to this war, “we must certainly take into account the fact that organized crime in Russia and Ukraine will get in the European Union. There will be many weapons available. Therefore, the monitoring of this situation will be crucial in the future,” explains Catherine de Bolle.
The threat is, mildly said, challenging, but the EU claims that it is ready to take the necessary measures. Magnus Brunner, European Commissioner for Internal Affairs, announced that the Soci Report will be submitted to the Member States in the European Council and that the number of employees in Europol will be doubled in the coming years, with a drastic increase in funding. Nevertheless, the European Commission has not made a decision on the exact amount of funds needed.
In 2024. years, Europol Budget was more than 220 million euros.
One of the most concrete and most visible forms of enemy hybrid warfare is the use of illegal migration for the destabilization of the EU political landscape. This is also a classic example of cooperation between organized crime and state actors. Poland, for example, was one of the main targets and has been facing the mass influx of illegal migrants for years.
“It is clear that they are artificial created migration because we have people from Somalia, Eritrea, Iraq, Egypt, for example. These migrants would otherwise come through Maciej Duszczyk, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Poland, for Euronews, adding:
“This is the modus of criminal gang operands that work very closely with the Belarusian and Russian government, because without the participation of state actors from Belarus and Russia, it would be impossible to create these migration routes.”
Europol also warns of a potentially chaotic scenario in the post-war Ukraine, where a vacuum could create a perfect environment for criminal activities.
(Vijesti.ba)
