Hommam Al Nassim 
The European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) released a report on Friday, revealing the existence of 821 criminal networks threatening security in the European Union.
Organized crime poses a major threat to the internal security of the European Union, directly affecting the lives of the bloc’s citizens.
The report highlighted the danger of criminal networks and how they operate, as they appear to be professional, flexible, destructive, and highly controlled, and explained that these networks do not operate in isolation, but affect the lives of European citizens directly, causing high levels of violence associated with drugs and guerrilla wars in many cities of the Union.
According to the report, more than a third of the most threatening criminal networks launder their profits across the real estate sector, while other criminal groups have used various sectors such as luxury products and cash-intensive companies such as hospitality and cryptocurrencies.
More than 25,000 people belong to those criminal groups, according to data from the bloc’s 27 member states and 17 Europol partner countries.
In another report published on Thursday, Europol and the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Addiction revealed an illicit drug trade worth more than 31 million euros ($33.9 million) a year in the EU.
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