Ethnic Organised Crime Groups: Assessing Countermeasures Adopted by EU Member States

Ethnic organised crime groups (OCGs), such as Nigerians, Chinese and Albanians, are deeply embedded in Europe and pose a threat to national and international security. They engage in a range of criminal activities, such as human trafficking and drug smuggling, and sometimes cooperate with local OCGs in Europe. In addition, there is evidence of their possible links to terrorist groups, as they are involved in illegal activities such as money laundering to finance terrorism. Existing legislative and operational measures at the EU and national level were created to tackle local OCGs and were tailored to the specific economic, political and social contexts in which they developed. However, the network organisations, internal structures, criminal activities and modi operandi of ethnic OCGs differ in many ways. The research question of this thesis concerns the assessment of the capacity to combat ethnic OCGs in EU Member States through a qualitative methodological approach focusing on the legislative and operational difficulties in fighting these new groups. Therefore, the study first analyses the specificities of Nigerian, Chinese and Albanian OCGs. Secondly, it identifies the countermeasures taken by EU Member States to combat OCGs, focusing from the legislative point of view on the implementation of Framework Decision 841/2008 and from the operational point of view on interceptions of communications, undercover investigations, informants and joint investigation teams. Finally, this dissertation assesses whether these measures against organised crime are applicable to counteract ethnic OCGs, identifying potential improvements that are needed to make these measures more effective.