Criminal syndicates from across the world, including from Albania, Italy, Brazil and China, are having a growing impact on Europe.

19:05, Sat, Jun 27, 2026 Updated: 19:13, Sat, Jun 27, 2026

New analysis On The EU's Most Threatening Criminal Networks

Magnus Brunner said gangs are growing at an alarming rate across Europe (Image: Getty Images)

Europe is facing a huge threat from expanding gangs and criminal networks, a new report from Europol has revealed. According to the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, some of the continent's most dangerous gangs are growing at alarming rates.

The 54-page dossier has revealed an estimated 400,000 gangsters are now working for criminal networks across Europe. This figure is five times higher than it was two years ago, with officials struggling to dismantle the gangs because they can quickly recruit and replace members as needed. Police in Europe broke down 623 gangs between 2024 and 2026 but 533 new ones reemerged to take their place.

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As reported by The Telegraph, Magnus Brunner, the EU's head of migration, said: "Criminals are thriving." He added: "Europol found that the criminal groups are very flexible, to put it that way.

"They shift, they merge, they reinvent themselves constantly making them harder to track on the one hand but also to dismantle on the other.

"Criminals have learnt to hide in plain sight. In the report two years ago 86 per cent of criminal groups used legal business structures and today it is 85 per cent so nothing has changed. These are not street gangs, these are corporations of crime ‘Ndrangheta multinational corporations."

Anti-mafia operation

Guns seized after members of the 'Ndrangheta gang were arrested (Image: AFP/Getty Images)

The gangs, which move drugs, smuggle migrants and commit cyber crime, are said to be using encrypted phones, virtual private networks, fake social media accounts and front companies to avoid detection.

Albanian crime families and the ’Ndrangheta - a criminal syndicate originating from the Calabria region of Italy - are working with cartels in Brazil to flood Europe with cocaine. Meanwhile, the Primeiro Comando da Capital, Latin America’s biggest drug gang, is also continuing to have an impact on Europe.

Chinese gangs are also having an influence by recruiting women for sex work and trafficking them to brothels in Spain and France. Many of the criminal profits are being hidden in restaurants, hotels, casinos, resorts and residential developments across the continent.

Police vehicle with policeman stood beside

Police are hunting gang members across Europe (Image: Sebastian Gollnow/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images)

Jürgen Ebner, the executive director of Europol, said: "The report clearly shows that these criminal groups that remained. They have a very strong financial back up, they use sophisticated counter-measures.

"They use high levels of corruption, they are globally internationally connected cells across the EU and beyond, an international enterprise."

He added: "They operate in the fluid criminal ecosystem. When they are under law enforcement pressure they regroup they reshuffle and they can easily set up structures new, they can replace people

"Targeting individual criminals is not enough for itself as long as the vulnerability remains as long as the business model survives others will step in and replace."