Over 800 dangerous gangs with more than 25,000 members operate in the European Union (EU). Among these networks are members from the Balkans, mostly from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and Serbia, and their main activity is drug trafficking.
Data on the number, characteristics, structure and characteristics of criminal organizations provide insight into the complex, dynamic and hidden world of the underworld, which offers illicit goods that are in demand. By analyzing the size, composition and organization of these groups more deeply, it is better understood how they function, cooperate and develop over time. This knowledge is important for police officers, prosecutors, decision-makers, researchers and the public to develop more successful measures against organized crime.
For example, data on the decrease in the number of criminal organizations in Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia during the last ten years are significant. In Montenegro, the number of criminal organizations was halved, while in Serbia it was reduced by almost five times. However, these data do not necessarily indicate that criminal groups have been broken up or weakened. It is possible that they united, consolidated and became more effective in their activities, and thus more dangerous.
The police found that nine out of 12 criminal groups in Serbia, as well as 21 out of 46 in North Macedonia, are transnational, which means that they operate both in their own country and abroad. These groups were the subject of an analysis by Europol, the main law enforcement agency of the EU, whose report was published in April 2024. According to Europol, there are 821 criminal networks with over 25,000 members in the 27 member states of the Union.
They are brought together by the drug business and a common language
These networks deal with various criminal activities such as drug trafficking, fraud, property crimes, money laundering, migrant smuggling and human trafficking. However, drug trafficking stands out as a key activity, since half (50 percent) of the most dangerous criminal networks are involved in this activity, either independently or as part of their activities. One third (36 percent) of these networks focus exclusively on drug trafficking. Members of these networks that are active in Europe also come from the Western Balkans.
A common language most often unites criminals from these areas, while national differences are not that important. So two groups of members can be distinguished from the Western Balkans: the first one that speaks the Albanian language and the second one that speaks the languages of the peoples of the former Yugoslavia. They rely a lot on technologies in their work. According to the Belgian Minister of Justice, communication via the Sky ECC application was most often done in English, Albanian and Croatian.
Criminal networks gathered around Albanians consist either exclusively of Albanians or of Albanians in combination with citizens of Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Greece, Italy and Serbia. Nevertheless, in more than half of these criminal networks, Albanians are the dominant nationality. They are active in drug trafficking, arms smuggling, robberies, and migrant smuggling. They operate in a large number of member states of the Union and in countries such as Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom (UK), and Latin American countries (Brazil, Colombia, and Ecuador).
On the other side are networks that combine membership from different countries of the Western Balkans. Serbs take the lead. They include Albanians, Belgians, Bosnians, Croats, Dutch, Germans, Montenegrins, Slovenians and Turks. Their main criminal activity is drug trafficking, mainly cocaine and cannabis, and to a lesser extent synthetic drugs and heroin. They also deal with property crime, cigarette smuggling, and human trafficking for sexual exploitation. They mostly work in Belgium, Colombia, Croatia, France, Germany, the Netherlands,and the countries of the Western Balkans, N1 writes.
