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22.06.2010

The globalisation of crime: a UN report paints a picture of global security

The impact of global transnational organised crime on Italy, the results so far achieved through the response models adopted by our country, main trends, dynamics and threats posed by the new forms of crime. These are the issues discussed at the conference organised at the National Anti-Mafia Directorate in Rome.

The report ‘The Globalization of Crime’ drawn up by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has offered an opportunity both to exchange national and international experiences in the fight against organised crime and to take stock of the situation and the future scenarios starting with a country like Italy which is a major crossroads for many illicit traffics carried out by transnational organised crime.

The conference has been presided over by the Chief of Police Antonio Manganelli. The National Anti-Mafia Prosecutor Piero Grasso, the Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Antonio Maria Costa and high ranking officials of the police engaged in the fight against organised crime also attended the meeting.

Some key figures outlined in the report show that:
• only in Europe, 140,000 persons are victims of human trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation. The total illicit profits produced in one year by this illegal traffic is estimated at 3 billion dollars;
• the two major routes used for migrant smuggling pass through Africa into Latin America and the United States of America;
• Europe is the most lucrative heroin market (20 billion dollars), while Russia is the highest consumer in the world (70 tons);
• the total profits produced by the international trafficking of firearms is estimated at approximately 170-320 billion dollars. Although arms smuggling can be considered episodic – dependent on specific war conflicts – the market volume of arms is so important that it might be able to kill as many people as some pandemic deseases;
• counterfeit products seized on the European borders have increased ten-fold over the past decade, thus yielding a profit of more than 10 billion dollars;
• one million and a half people are victims of identity theft resulting in financial loss estimated at one billion dollars, while cybercrime jeopardizes national security: power stations, air traffic and nuclear power plants are already the subject of cyber attacks.