Posted on 01/18/2005 12:07:09 PM PST by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Organized criminals in Europe are diversifying and moving away from specializing only in single types of crime, European police body Europol said on Tuesday.
"The move away from a single type of criminal activity (e.g. drug trafficking) to diversification into multi-crime activities (e.g. drug trafficking, commodity smuggling and illegal immigration) is a continuing trend," Europol Acting Director, Mariano Simancas said in a statement.
"It is also worth highlighting that organized crime groups focus on facilitating illegal immigration and trafficking in human beings, because they consider this a low risk crime with a high profit," he added.
In its report on organized crime in 2004 Europol, which is based in the Netherlands, said crime in most European Union member states was dominated by local groups, but they were increasingly working with foreigners.
Ethnic Albanian, Russian and Chinese criminal groups were among the most widespread organized crime groups across the EU, the report released Tuesday said.
Human smuggling hit world headlines in June 2000 when 58 illegal immigrants from China were found suffocated to death in a tomato truck arriving at the British port of Dover from the Netherlands.
Simancas said that fighting illegal immigration and trafficking in human beings, which he said often came with violence and cruelty, would continue to be among Europol's main priorities.
It just makes sense.
Don't put all of your illegal activities into one basket.
So when could we expect to hear about "Total Quality Management" and "Sigma Six" criminal gangs?
"Sigma Six" would be a novel gang name, wouldn't it? High quality ultra-violence.
"It is also worth highlighting that organized crime groups focus on facilitating illegal immigration and trafficking in human beings, because they consider this a low risk crime with a high profit," he added."
That is not exclusive to Europe.
Re pic: that's the one.
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