Organized Crime "THE MOST PRESSING INTERNAL SECURITY THREAT TO THE EU"
COVID's Impact - Online & Offline Fraud - Violence Increasing - All Crime has Online Component

Europol publishes its Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment 2021
Europol publishes the European Union (EU) Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment, the EU SOCTA 2021. The SOCTA, published by Europol every four years, presents a detailed analysis of the threat of serious and organised crime facing the EU. The SOCTA is a forward-looking assessment that identifies shifts in the serious and organized crime landscape.

The SOCTA 2021 details the operations of criminal networks in the EU and how their criminal activities and business practices threaten to undermine our societies, economy and institutions, and slowly erode the rule of law. The report provides unprecedented insights into Europe’s criminal underworld based on the analysis of thousands of cases and pieces of intelligence provided to Europol.

The SOCTA reveals a concerning expansion and evolution of serious and organised crime in the EU. The document warns of the potential long-term implications of the COVID-19 pandemic and how these may create ideal conditions for crime to thrive in the future.

As the EU is facing the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the most significant crises since the end of World War II, criminals seek to exploit this extraordinary situation targeting citizens, businesses, and public institutions alike.

Key findings of the SOCTA 2021:

● Serious and organized crime has never posed as high a threat to the EU and its citizens as it does today.

● The COVID-19 pandemic and the potential economic and social fallout expected to follow threaten to create ideal conditions for organized crime to spread and take hold in the EU and beyond

● The trafficking and exploitation of human beings, migrant smuggling, online and offline frauds and property crime pose significant threats to EU citizens.

● Around 60 % of the criminal networks active in the EU use violence as part of their criminal businesses.

● More than 80 % of the criminal networks use legal business structures

● The use of violence by criminals involved in serious and organised crime in the EU appears to have increased in terms of the frequency of use and its severity. The threat from violent incidents has been augmented by the frequent use of firearms or explosives in public spaces.

● Criminals are digital natives. Virtually all criminal activities now feature some online component and many crimes have fully migrated online. Criminals exploit encrypted communications to network among each other, use social media and instant messaging services to reach a larger audience to advertise illegal goods, or spread disinformation.

Organized Property Crime: Fencing and Organized burglaries and thefts

Fencing is knowingly buying and selling stolen goods. Organized property crime fundamentally relies on fences. However, the processes and networks behind fencing are largely under-investigated. Key locations and routes for stolen goods are currently intelligence gaps.

Organized property crime is likely the most visible type of organized crime, with a direct impact on people and the private and public sector. More than one million cases related to burglary are reported in the EU each year(52).

Stolen goods are sold in shops usually in the home country of the criminals or in the country of the theft or other countries depending on the availability of local fencing networks. Another important sales channel are online platforms. europol.europa.eu

SOCTA 2021 - report

Editor's Note: The report is virtually a mirror of the U.S. As they're facing the same challenges we are. With COVID's impact, online and offline fraud increasing, violence increasing, and the fact that virtually all crimes feature some, if not all, online components.

Interestingly, only four pages are dedicated to organized property crime and organized retail crime isn't even mentioned as a phrase. With only one reference to 'shoplifting.' The issue may be that they go into great detail discussing organized robberies in retail businesses and this may represent their category for ORC.

On a side note, this doesn't help our Buy Safe effort in Congress. As Congress has nothing to look at as examples to measure against and law enforcement isn't even calling it the same thing.

Another alarming finding is that 80% of organized crime is managed like successful business models with managerial levels, field operators, that are surrounded by a range of actors linked to the crime infrastructure providing support services.

This all being said means, that as the crimes persist and continue to grow globally the 'Buy Safe' movement in the U.S. ultimately needs to become a global effort. Actually, it may become an inevitable development by itself, in response to the increasing activity, level of sophistication and organizational structure, and the sheer dollar size of the frauds increasing.

In response the nexus between loss prevention and cybersecurity, it will continue to evolve and grow even closer. To the point of potentially being one unit in the future.

As stated above this is Europe's equivalent to the U.S.'s FBI Annual Crime Index with one major difference: the analysis, insightfulness and explanation of activity. As they try to develop a picture of what organized crime looks like in the EU for the reader. However, it does lack the numbers and data the FBI's Crime Index provides. Just some thoughts. - Gus Downing