Covid, cocaine take Europe to ‘breaking point’

The coronavirus pandemic could fuel organised crime for years to come in Europe, a continent already at "breaking point" from an unprecedented flood of cocaine, the EU’s policing agency warned Monday.

In its flagship four-yearly report, Europol said increasingly violent criminal gangs are likely to muscle in on legitimate businesses left vulnerable by the economic damage caused by Covid-19.

Criminals are also offering fake coronavirus vaccines and home-testing kits as they seek to capitalise on global efforts to recover from the virus, the Hague-based agency said. "We are at the breaking point," Europol’s director Catherine De Bolle told AFP in an interview.

"The impact on the lives of citizens, on the economy, on the rule of law is too big. That’s what we see from this... report." The "Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment" is an in-depth report issued every four years which will be used by EU member states to set crime-fighting priorities until 2025.

"A prolonged pandemic will put heavy strain on European and global economies" and a predicted economic recession "may shape serious and organised crime for years to come," the report said.

Europol said the drug trade in particular was fuelling corruption across the EU, which De Bolle added "affected everybody from dock workers to politicians" and was used in almost three-quarters of all serious crimes.