The financial crisis has fuelled a huge expansion of organised crime in Europe, with 3,600 criminal syndicates active across the continent, profiting from such prosaic products as household detergents, the head of Europol has warned.
Rob Wainwright, director of the European Union’s crime-fighting agency, said Europe’s black market in counterfeit foodstuffs, pharmaceuticals and machine parts doubled to a value of about €2bn in the early years of the recession.
The groups are profiting from an increased demand for cheap goods and finding ways to cash in on EU member states’ attempts to boost tax revenues, he told the Financial Times. In particular, a new breed of cyber criminals in Russia, Ukraine and across eastern Europe are carrying out increasingly sophisticated online attacks on financial services groups.