Source: Europol
The EU Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment (EU-SOCTA) 2025 has release a report entitled “The Changing DNA of Serious and Organised Crime”. The report provides an in-depth analysis of the shifting nature of serious organised crime, based on intelligence from EU Member States and international law enforcement.
The report anticipates future threats and offers a roadmap for law enforcement and policymakers to stay ahead of evolving organised crime.
Wildlife crime, waste pollution and the trafficking of non-CITES species are highlighted in the report and summarised below.
Download the full report from Europol’s Website (PDF)
Key characteristics of evolving organised crime:
- Crime is increasingly destabilising:
- Organised crime now impacts EU institutions and society, through money laundering, corruption, violence, and exploitation of young perpetrators.
- Criminal networks also act as proxies for hybrid threat actors, reinforcing mutual goals.
- Crime is nurtured online:
- Digital platforms enable the scaling and adaptation of crime, with nearly all serious crimes having an online footprint.
- Criminals exploit digital infrastructure to evade detection, with data becoming a new form of power.
- Crime is accelerated by AI and emerging technologies:
- Criminals use AI and new technologies to automate and expand operations, making them more scalable and harder to detect.
Fastest-growing criminal threats:
- Cyber-attacks (including ransomware and critical infrastructure targeting).
- Online fraud schemes powered by AI and large amounts of stolen data.
- Online child sexual exploitation, with AI generating abuse material.
- Migrant smuggling, exploiting geopolitical crises and charging high fees.
- Drug trafficking, with changing routes and increased violence.
- Firearms trafficking, fuelled by technology and online marketplaces.
- Waste crime, where criminals exploit businesses and harm the environment.
Common elements in organised crime:
- Cross-border operations: Criminal networks operate across borders and even from within prisons, adapting tactics to benefit from hybrid threat actors.
- Criminal finances and money laundering: Digital platforms and technologies like blockchain protect and grow criminal wealth.
- Corruption: Targeting individuals with access to critical digital systems, aiding crime.
- Organised crime-related violence: Increased violence, fuelled by criminal competition, encrypted communication, and borderless recruitment.
- Exploitation of young perpetrators: Used to shield criminal leadership from identification or prosecution.
Key strategies for law enforcement:
- To break the cycle of organised crime, law enforcement must address both the key criminal markets and the underlying mechanisms that sustain them.
Environmental Crime
Environmental crime, particularly waste and pollution crimes, poses a critical threat to our natural environment and economies. Waste trafficking is intensifying with a projected further growth in scale and sophistication.
The illicit market of trafficked wildlife remains largely stable with a potential shift foreseen in trafficked specimens and growing online trade.
Waste and Pollution Crime
- Growth in waste trafficking and pollution crimes:
- Waste trafficking is driven by the large amounts of global waste, with crimes expected to increase in scale and sophistication.
- Law enforcement has seen a rise in violations related to waste trafficking and pollution.
- Exploitation of recycling and resource recovery:
- Criminals may exploit circular economy principles and recycling systems to divert materials for illegal use.
- Common trafficked waste types: Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment, plastics, vehicle parts, and end-of-life electric vehicle batteries.
- Fluorinated gas (F-gas) fraud:
- Criminal networks may take advantage of the reduction in hydrofluorocarbon imports to illegally trade F-gases, driven by high demand.
- Digital infrastructure enabling waste and pollution crimes:
- Online platforms and marketplaces are used to advertise illicit waste and pollution services.
- Websites connect EU waste brokers with counterparts outside the region for trafficking operations.
- Criminal actors involved:
- Waste trafficking networks often include opportunistic legal business owners who combine legitimate operations with illegal activities.
- Criminal actors possess expertise in waste regulations and document fraud, allowing them to bypass controls.
- Waste brokers facilitate trafficking by acquiring fraudulent authorisations and misrepresenting waste.
- Environmental impact:
- Illegally trafficked and improperly disposed of waste causes significant pollution, damaging land, water, and air.
Case example – Illegal disposal of hazardous waste: A network illegally imported hazardous waste from Italy, Slovenia, and Germany to Croatia. Waste was buried or dumped without treatment, saving costs and generating at least EUR 4 million in profit. Around 35,000 tonnes of waste were disposed of illegally.
Wildlife Crime
Wildlife crime trends:
- Wildlife trafficking remains stable, driven by continuous demand in both EU and global markets.
- Traffickers are increasingly targeting non-CITES-listed species to avoid law enforcement attention.
- The use of online platforms (social media, e-commerce) for wildlife trade is growing.
Species affected:
- Endangered species: Smuggled for illegal trade, including protected fauna and flora.
- Non-CITES-listed species: Used by traffickers to evade regulations.
- Pets: Trafficked without proper documentation or veterinary approval, often advertised online.
- Horses: Illegally traded for entry into the food chain.
- Glass eels: A major illegal trade, with profits up to EUR 3 billion annually.
- Bluefin tuna: Illegally fished in the Mediterranean, contributing to illegal and unreported fishing.
- Molluscs: Illegally fished, generating millions in illegal profits.
Trafficking networks:
- Criminal networks are highly skilled, with expertise in veterinary science, chemistry, and biology.
- Networks often work internationally, especially between the EU and Asia, for trades like glass eels.
The European Union’s Role:
- The EU acts as a source, transit, and destination hub for wildlife trafficking, particularly for species from Africa, the Americas, and the Middle East.
At the Press Conference
Watch the Europol Press Conference
Catherine De Bolle
Europol Executive Director
The very DNA of organised crime is changing. Criminal networks have evolved into global, technology-driven criminal enterprises, exploiting digital platforms, illicit financial flows and geopolitical instability to expand their influence. They are more adaptable, and more dangerous than ever before. Breaking this new criminal code means dismantling the systems that allow these networks to thrive – targeting their finances, disrupting their supply chains and staying ahead of their use of technology. Europol is at the heart of Europe’s fight against organised crime, but staying ahead of this evolving threat means reinforcing our capabilities – expanding our intelligence, operational reach and partnerships to protect the EU’s security for the years to come.
Magnus Brunner
European Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration
Our security landscape is evolving dramatically. The SOCTA report clearly shows how serious and organised crime – and the threat it poses to our security – is also changing. We need to make every effort to protect the European Union. Our internal security strategy will address these challenges.
Tomasz Siemoniak
Polish Minister of the Interior and Administration
Poland, as an EU country bordering an active war, is fully mobilised to identify and neutralise emerging threats. Our focus spans drug and human smuggling—especially its digital dimension—human trafficking, criminal infiltration of legal structures, hybrid threats, and the illicit arms trade. Security is the core of our presidency as we shape the next EMPACT cycle, laying the foundation for international police cooperation. Guided by SOCTA, we are committed to strengthening EMPACT and Europol to ensure EU support meets Member States’ real needs in an evolving geopolitical landscape.
The EU-SOCTA 2025 is more than just an intelligence assessment – it serves as the foundation for Europe’s strategic approach to tackling serious and organised crime. Based on its findings, the Council of the European Union sets priorities for law enforcement action, guiding the development of operational plans of the European Multidisciplinary Platform Against Criminal Threats (EMPACT) for the next four years.
