BRUSSELS, May 4 (UPI) -- Syndicates smuggling people and drugs into Europe through the Balkans are increasingly sophisticated and connected, EU law enforcement said Wednesday.
The EU Organized Crime Threat Assessment issued by the joint police body Europol was based on more than 70,000 pages of intelligence from member police forces over two years.
Gangs have diversified their enterprises and are "increasingly multi-commodity and poly-criminal," employing container shipments, air freight and light aircraft to streamline transport, the report states.
The Internet has become "a key facilitator for the vast majority of offline organized crime activity," ranging from intellectual property piracy and credit card fraud to child pornography and trafficking of humans and endangered species, Europol says.
Albanian-speaking gangs are especially prominent and "notorious for their use of extreme violence," but West African and Lithuanian groups also are emerging as major players.
The bid by Bulgaria and Romania to join Europe's Schengen passport-free zone and proposed visa exemptions for former Yugoslav states, Ukraine and Moldova could facilitate organized crime, "but we shouldn't overestimate the strength of current border arrangements," Europol director Robert Wainwright told the EUObserver.
"We carry out an objective report without political influence. It's for policymakers to judge how to react," he said.
