Most global crime routes point to Europe: UN report
By DPA, IANSThursday, June 17, 2010
NEW YORK/VIENNA - Most forms of transnational crime have Europe as their destination, according to the first UN report on global crime networks that was issued Thursday in New York.
The report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) found that overall, most illicit trade flows to or from major Western economic powers as well as Brazil, Russia, India and China.
But a map in the UNODC survey showed that Europe is the only world region to where the full line-up of criminal trafficking flows, including drugs, people, faked goods and natural resources.
The Vienna-based agency warned that transnational crime threatens to derail security especially in poor countries that already suffer from conflicts.
“Crime is fuelling corruption, infiltrating business and politics, and hindering development,” UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa wrote.
He pointed to drug cartels that spread violence in Central America, the Caribbean and West Africa, as well as to cooperation between insurgents and criminals in Southeast Asia and Northern and Central Africa.
The UNODC said governments should try fighting criminal markets rather than crime syndicates, by stopping money laundering and informal transfer systems.
As global trade has become more and more de-regulated, the agency called for stronger measures to detect fake goods, monitor shipments, fight corruption and crack down on cyber crime.
The report put a value to various forms of international crime:
- It estimated that there are 140,000 human trafficking victims in Europe, generating a $3 billion profit for their exploiters per year. Major human trafficking routes flow from Africa to Europe and from Latin America to the US.
- Europe is the biggest regional heroin market, valued at $20 billion annually.
- Natural resources and wildlife worth $2.5 billion were trafficked from Asia to the European Union and China in 2009, UNODC said.
- The number of counterfeited goods caught at Europe’s borders has increased tenfold in the past decade, reaching an annual value of $10 billion.
