Cross-border criminals earn €710bn a year
The most lucrative businesses for criminals are drug trafficking and counterfeiting, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said, launching an awareness- raising campaign about the size and cost of cross-border criminal networks.
“Millions of victims are affected each year as a result of the activities of organised crime groups, with human trafficking victims alone numbering 2.4m at any one time,” the agency said in a statement.
The total estimated figure of €710bn is equivalent to 1.5% of the world’s gross domestic product, it said, warning crime groups can destabilise entire regions.
“Stopping this trans-national threat represents one of the international community’s greatest global challenges,” Yury Fedotov, executive director of the agency said.
A spokesman said it was the first time the agency had compiled an estimate for transnational organised crime, using internal and external sources, so there were no comparative figures to show any trend.
The report drew on International Labour Organisation data on the cost of human trafficking, as well as information about counterfeit goods compiled by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The multimedia campaign by the Office on Drugs and Crime underlines the huge sums of money involved in organised crime, which covers everything from drug and arms trafficking to cyber crime to the smuggling of migrants.
And it will stress that these are anything but victimless crimes.
“Crime groups can destabilise countries and entire regions, undermining development assistance in those areas and increasing domestic corruption, extortion, racketeering and violence,” said the agency’s statement.
It identified drug trafficking as by far the most lucrative trade for criminals — they estimated it brings in €260bn per year.
The counterfeiting of goods, it said, brought in €205bn annually.
Human trafficking and migrant smuggling totals an estimated €32bn a year; while trading of ivory and animal parts generates €2.85bn in criminal revenue.
According to the World Health Organisation, around 1% of the world’s medicines are thought to be counterfeit, a figure which rises as high as 30% in parts of Asia, Africa and South America.
“Money... is laundered through banking systems, undermining legitimate international commerce,” said the Office on Drugs and Crime in its statement.
“People become victims of identity theft with 1.5m people each year being caught out,” it added.
“Criminal groups traffic women for sexual exploitation and children for purposes of forced begging, burglary and pick pocketing.”
And fake medicines and food products put lives at risk while at the same time undermining the legitimate market.
* The campaign will go out on Twitter, Facebook and the social networking site Google+ as well as on the dedicated site www.unodc.org/toc
