Europol warned Friday that Europe’s most dangerous criminal networks are rapidly adapting to law enforcement pressure, exploiting legal businesses, digital tools and financial systems to keep operating even when individual groups are dismantled.
In a new report, “Decoding the EU’s most threatening criminal networks — Issue 2: The blueprint of criminal opportunism,” the EU law enforcement agency said authorities had disrupted or downgraded many of the 821 criminal networks identified in its first assessment in 2024. According to Europol, 76 percent of those networks are no longer listed among the most threatening groups affecting the bloc.
But the agency cautioned that this should not be read as proof that organized crime is shrinking. It said that 198 of the networks identified in 2024 remain among the EU’s top threats, while 533 new or newly identified networks have emerged, bringing the current total to 731.
Those networks include more than 400,000 members from 118 nationalities, Europol said. They are active across a wide range of serious crimes, including drug trafficking, cybercrime, migrant smuggling, human trafficking, fraud, organized property crime and money laundering. More than one-third are involved in drug trafficking.
The report describes the networks as “agile, borderless, controlling and destructive,” the same framework Europol used in 2024. It also found that 85 percent of the most threatening networks still use legal business structures to facilitate or conceal their activities, down only slightly from 86 percent two years ago.
At a press conference presenting the report on Friday, European Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration Magnus Brunner described the groups as “corporations of crime,” rather than street gangs, warning that they behave like multinational businesses by moving toward the most profitable markets. He said the EU’s economies remain exposed because criminal networks are able to hide “in plain sight” through legal companies.
Europol’s acting executive director, Jürgen Ebner, told the same briefing that law enforcement cooperation had produced results, but warned that arrests alone would not eliminate the underlying criminal economy. When a top criminal target is arrested, he said, demand and profit opportunities remain, allowing someone else to step in.
The report also highlights the growing role of online platforms, encrypted communications, artificial intelligence, cryptocurrencies and professional enablers such as lawyers, accountants, real estate agents and logistics experts. Europol said criminal networks use these tools and services to scale operations, launder proceeds and reduce the risk of detection.
Europol called for a more systemic response, including stronger action against criminal digital infrastructure, closer cooperation with private companies, more financial investigations and better asset recovery.
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