Organized crime generates revenues of more than 120 billion US dollar globally every year, with drug smuggling by far the most lucrative activity, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said Monday.
– Organized crime has ballooned to global proportions, UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov told a meeting in Vienna marking 10 years since the adoption of the Palermo Convention on Transnational Organized Crime.
Fedotov said his office knew of only 19 states, out of the 157 countries which have ratified the convention, which had used it to facilitate international cooperation, including extraditions (udvisninger), to combat criminal gangs.
Fedotov said cocaine smuggled from the Andean region to North America and Europe and heroin trafficked from Afghanistan to Europe were worth 72 billion and 33 billion dollar annually.
He estimated that human trafficking of mostly women and children to Europe for sexual exploitation brought in 3 billion dollar each year while smuggling of migrants from Latin America to North America earned 6,6 billion.
New and emerging forms of transnational organized crime had devastating effects on the environment, public health, development and security.
Fedotov elaborated on three forms of transnational organized crime: trafficking of natural resources, counterfeit medicines and cybercrime (forbrydelser via internettet).
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
