Global Crime Networks Rake In $870bn Each Year
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Tackling crime and drugs must be part of a developing global agenda, said a top United Nations official on Wednesday, who warned that contemporary organised crime is becoming increasingly sophisticated and highly adaptive.
Tackling crime and drugs must be part of a developing global agenda, said a top United Nations official on Wednesday, who warned that contemporary organised crime is becoming increasingly sophisticated and highly adaptive.
Speaking to the AFP in an interview, Yury Fedotov, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said law enforcers are finding it hard to compete with international crime syndicates which collectively rake in $870 billion a year through illicit activities such as human and drug trafficking.
According to Fedotov, funding cuts to law enforcement agencies as a result of the financial crisis have widened a longstanding financial gap between criminal gangs and the authorities.
“Gangs are better funded than any law enforcement institution. That is clear, and especially if we compare the huge amount of illicit revenues with limited budgets of many law enforcement institutions,” he said.
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However, Fedotov warned that the bigger challenge is the difficulty law enforcers face playing catch up with the shape-shifting networks that move faster than traditional mafias of the past.
“Contemporary organised crime is also sophisticated and highly adaptive,” he said. “We should be more flexible, and not only follow the flow, but also prevent and anticipate developments in terms of organised crime.”
According to the UNODC, cybercrime is fast-growing area, given that a third of the world’s population now has active access to the Internet.
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Earlier this week, Fedotov said tackling crime and drugs must be part of a developing global agenda and addressing these threats helps to secure a sustainable and equitable future for all.
“If people are to have a hope of living free from fear, conflict and violence, we must tackle the global, interconnected challenges of drugs, crime, human trafficking and migrant smuggling, corruption and terrorism,” he told the UN Economic and Social Council on Monday.
The international community has been engaged in elaborating a global development agenda beyond 2015, the deadline for achieving the globally agreed anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals.
“These events present an historic opportunity,” he said. “The dialogue which is taking place at the highest levels and with a broad range of stakeholders can help to ensure that the key issues of drug control, crime prevention and criminal justice do not fall by the wayside.”
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