OCTOPUS

ongoing

The criminal landscape is more and more a fluid ecosystem of intertwined criminal activities conducted by horizontal and influent criminal actors. Among those networks, a number of long-standing and high risk criminal networks are identified as posing a major threat for the EU Internal Security. Based on the threat analysis in France, criminal networks from the Balkan countries and Eastern Partnership Countries (EaP) are evaluated as high risk. In these areas, trafficking in human beings constitute a serious, highly lucrative and still under-reported crime. OCTOPUS general objective is to gain a better understanding of the nature and modus operandi of high-risk criminal groups active in the EU, particularly from the Balkans region and Eastern Partnership Countries (EaP). The project will consist of two distinct but interactive blocks. The first one is devoted to operational actions aimed at improving cross-border cooperation and the detection of hidden financial transactions arising from the activities of these cartels. It will look for links between human trafficking, illegal property crime, environmental crime or drug trafficking and the criminal activities of these groups. The second block will be devoted to the study of the different criminogenic teams (high risk criminal networks) and their operating methods, as well as to the analysis of good practices to fight this scourge threat more effectively. Thus, the project will seek to confront experts from participating countries in the field of the fight against these criminal networks, based on the findings established during the operational actions implemented in the first block, for each of the priorities. It will pay attention to the key roles or functions perpetuators hold in these networks with a specific focus on the “enablers” or the individuals providing “crime as a service” solution for these networks through corruption, logistic support, money laundering and violence. This block will give rise to the creation of a methodological corpus for the benefit of all European services in the EU MS.