Massive anti-organized crime clean up all over EU

Europol HQ, The Hague

THE HAGUE – The biggest raid against organized crime ever organized in Europe took place last week, resulting in the arrest of 1,027 people from all 28 EU countries, accused of a variety of crimes with two salient things, they were all accused of drug and/or people smuggling across EU borders. A very good result, too, was the liberation of 30 Romanian minors, victims of people smugglers and presumably to be sold into prostitution. In addition, confiscations totalled some 600kg of cocaine, 200kg of heroin, and 1.3kg of hashish. The 20,000 agents involved in Operation Archimedes, coordinated by Europol, had the

assistance, too, of police units from the US, Switzerland, Norway, Serbia, Australia and Colombia. The head of Europol, Rob Wainwright, said at the press conference announcing the extraordinary operation, “[This is a] mile stone in Europe’s fight against organized crime. There has never been anything like it, but it shows the police’s and justice’s international commitment to seek out and prosecute the worst criminals, wherever they may be.”

Among the confiscated hoards were one million euros in cash and thirteen luxury vehicles. Altogether, Europol believes it has dismantled several of the worst criminal gangs in Europe.

Wainwright qualified the liberation of the 30 Romanian children as “the grand success of the campaign”, adding that 90 people traffickers and 170 of their collaborators were arrested. This involved checking some 10,000 illegal immigrants. He points out that the sexual exploitation of children, transported from country to country is on the increase in Europe. "This plague," he said, "needs our best efforts to eradicate."