Europol warns of rise in organized crime across Europe

Organized crime is spreading across Europe, according to the EU law enforcement agency Europol, with an increasing propensity for violence among criminal networks posing a problem in countries including Germany.

"Organized crime is on the rise. It exploits every weakness," Europol chief Catherine De Bolle told the German news magazine Der Spiegel, in comments seen by dpa.

The increasing drug trade was fuelling the violence, De Bolle said. Cocaine production in South and Central America is booming and Europe is awash with the drug, according to Europol.

"The situation is dramatic," De Bolle said, noting that trade in other drugs was also increasing.

According to investigations by the Hague-based police authority, 821 serious criminal networks are active in the European Union.

These gangs, with more than 25,000 members, are highly professional and ruthless, Europol recently warned. The main business, according to the analysis, is drug trafficking.

Money earned from drugs in Europe mostly stays on the continent and is invested in the local economy, De Bolle further stated. "This makes organized crime one of the greatest dangers of our time."

The police need the technical means, powers and personnel to have a chance in the fight against the criminal networks, De Bolle said. "If we do not invest more, we will lose this fight."

Following a severe conflict between German and Dutch drug gangs in the Cologne area, the union of German criminal investigators (BDK) has warned of crimes such as explosive attacks and kidnappings.

"The Netherlands must be a warning to us," the BDK's North Rhine-Westphalia chairman Oliver Huth told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper. There explosions in front of homes or businesses are a common pressure tactic used by drug gangs.