1,000 arrested in Europe-wide organised-crime sweep
Europol says the 10-day operation involved all 28 EU nations and some 20,000 police, and saw 30 trafficked Romanian children freed
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 25 September, 2014, 4:48am
UPDATED : Thursday, 25 September, 2014, 4:48am
Agence France-Presse in The Hague
Europol's Rob Wainwright (left) and Italian police chief Alessandro Pansa discuss the crackdown on organised crime. Photo: AFP
Police have arrested more than 1,000 suspects and rescued at least 30 trafficked children in an unprecedented 10-day swoop on organised-crime gangs across Europe.
The raids targeted groups involved in people trafficking, cybercrime, narcotics and illegal gun trafficking and were carried out by about 20,000 officers between September 15 and 23, Europol's chief said.
In one of the raids, 30 Romanian children were saved from child traffickers aiming to use the victims as sex slaves or slave labour.
Police officers from all 28 European Union members, as well as Australia, Colombia, Norway, the United States, Serbia and Switzerland, carried out 250 operations in some 300 cities, ports and border crossings across the continent.
Operation Archimedes "was the single largest coordinated assault an organised crime in Europe", Rob Wainwright said at Europol's headquarters in The Hague.
Wainwright said the operation was made necessary by the increasing sophistication and interconnectedness of Europe's crime groups, many of whom were using the hard-to-monitor "dark net" - or encrypted internet - to communicate with each other.
"Months in the planning, it was a carefully coordinated series of attacks on key nodal points and crime sectors that underpin the underground crime economy in Europe.
"What we have seen emerging is an integrated underground criminal economy," he said.
Arrests were concentrated on criminal middlemen and go-betweens, as crime kingpins are not typically caught in sweeps but in operations designed to ensnare them.
Italian police chief Allesandro Pansa said that the Mediterranean and Balkans had been "particular hotspots".
In total, 1,027 arrest were made, including 250 in Spain and 200 in Bulgaria.
Police focused on the growing threat of cybercrime, with criminal networks using the internet for cross-border crimes, including money laundering.
In total, 94 trafficking suspects were arrested, with police checking the identity of over 10,000 illegal immigrants.
Police officers in the operation seized about 600kg of cocaine, 1.3 tonnes of cannabis and 200kg of heroin.
They also dismantled a laboratory for making counterfeit medicine, and seized 13 luxury cars, 1.5 million contraband cigarettes and €1 million (HK$9.93 million) in cash.
Police intercepted over 40 packages of cocaine sent from Colombia to Europe and several couriers carrying the drug.
Searches and arrests were made at four airports and two harbours in Colombia.
The international swoop uncovered new routes used by criminal networks such as human traffickers and identified new criminal trends.
"More arrests are expected to follow," said Wainwright, adding that the operation had uncovered leads to be followed up in the "months and years" to come.
"The operation sends a very clear message," he said.
"It clearly tells the criminal community there will be no safe place for them to carry out their activities."
