Slightly fewer than 20 Irish gangs are among the 820 criminal networks identified in a landmark Euroean Union report as posing the biggest threat to the bloc’s internal security, Irish Examiner informed.
Eueopean Union police agency Europol collected and analysed information provided by each of the 27 member states, including Ireland.
The Irish Examiner, meanwhile, understands that only 20 Irish organised crime gangs are included in the 821 “most dangerous” criminal networks, despite the report not providing a breakdown by member state. The Irish are believed to represent a significant proportion of all organised crime groups here, and that around three quarters of them are involved in drug dealing.
A total of 821 networks earn profits ranging from several million to tens of millions of euros a year to even more, the report notes. It says the following: “Some criminal networks are even thought to generate hundreds of millions in illicit funds, with a handful reaching up to a billion euros.”
Half of the networks are fully or partly involved in drug trafficking, as well as other serious crimes, including fraud, organised property crime and migrant smuggling, it said. Europol said this unique “mapping exercise” sought to establish for the first time the “most threatening criminal networks” active in the EU.
The Garda National Crime and Security Intelligence Service has provided data on Ireland, so the analysis will help police tackle and “destroy” these gangs, according to Europol executive director Catherine De Bolle.
On top of that, a small per cent are known to live outside the EU, mainly to avoid law enforcement attention: the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and South America. The leadership of Ireland’s largest drug network, the Kinahan crime cartel, continues to live in the UAE.
Irish prospects of securing extradition of Kinahan leaders may have received a boost after Belgian Justice Minister Paul Van Tigchelt told the launch that co-operation between his country and the UAE is “starting to accelerate.” According to him, European countries “must exert much more pressure” as a diplomatic block on the UAE and other states.
