Top European crime gangs earning up to €1bn a year

The booming cocaine trade is dominated by Albanian, Belgian, Dutch, Italian and Spanish networks, with Albanian, Belgian, Dutch and Spanish also heavily involved in the cannabis market.

The 820 most dangerous criminal networks in the EU are, in general, earning annual profits of between several million to tens of millions of euro.

According to the first analysis of its type in Europe, some of the bigger outfits are thought to generate hundreds of millions of euro – and a select few are raking in up to a €1bn a year.