It is likely that even the average consumer of information in the Balkan region has already become saturated with content in which Balkan countries are ranked at the very bottom of European or even global rankings in various areas of social activity. From quality of life, education, democratization, human rights to environmental protection.
However, there are certainly areas in which Balkan countries are at the very top. Apart from sporadic and individual sports successes, this certainly includes organized crime.
Balkan organized crime enters the world stage in grand style at the end of the last century, earning the attention and interest of all relevant global institutions dealing with this issue, starting from law enforcement agencies of the most powerful Western countries, through specialized bodies of international organizations, to the media.
All the prerequisites that favor the development and flourishing of organized crime came together in this part of the European periphery during the 1990s. War, sanctions, the collapse of institutions and social values. However, the roots of organized crime in this region go even deeper.
The former state used organized crime, or rather its prominent representatives, for various needs, especially for carrying out tasks outside the country’s borders. During that period, such actions took place under strictly controlled conditions. However, after the dissolution of the state and the collapse of the institutional order in the countries that emerged after the breakup of former Yugoslavia, organized criminal groups continued to be used for various needs, quickly gaining the status of backbones of newly established orders and even the status of national heroes.
In weak Balkan states, the boundary between the political elite and organized crime quickly becomes completely imperceptible. The complete symbiosis of organized crime and state institutions, especially the security and intelligence apparatus, makes the fight against organized crime almost impossible.
The assassination of Serbia’s first democratic Prime Minister, Zoran Đinđić, is a terrifying proof of the omnipotence of organized crime and its complete symbiosis with the state. The police operation “Sablja” (Saber) that followed only partially cut the deep roots of organized crime, but the political patronage over it was never fully uncovered and prosecuted.
Today, organized crime is the most important economic sector of the Western Balkan countries, which sovereignly holds its portfolio in a wide range of activities, starting from drug trafficking, weapons, human trafficking, with a very strong influence in legal business flows in an effort to “launder” dirty money acquired through various criminal activities. By its nature, organized crime implies a connection with state structures, but in the Balkans, things have gone so far that organized crime is integrated into state structures.
EUROPOL’s report from April 2024 – “Decoding the EU’s most threatening criminal networks“, shows the extent to which organized crime is a serious threat to EU countries. According to the report, there are 821 organized criminal groups in the EU that pose a serious threat to the EU with over 25,000 members. Of the total number, 86% of them use legal business structures as a cover under which they operate, while 34% have been active for more than 10 years.
When organized crime poses such a great threat in well-regulated EU countries, it’s not hard to imagine how big a threat crime is in completely captured Bosnia and Herzegovina or other Balkan countries.
The EUROPOL report pays significant attention to organized criminal structures from the Balkans, which even on a global scale and in competition represent extremely powerful and well-organized structures with globally branched operations largely relying on drug smuggling from South America. Kleptocratic political elites in the Balkans are very often the most faithful ally, support and backing for such criminal structures.
Organized crime in the context of captured Balkan states is undoubtedly such a big problem that simply corrupt judiciaries and law enforcement agencies of the countries in the region are not capable of solving it. Ultimately, we have seen that even after the delivery of an abundance of information from intercepted conversations on “Sky” applications, which were provided by partner foreign services, the prosecution of suspects is going quite sloppily with very rare exceptions to follow traces to the very top, and usually they mostly go there.
Hence, more intensive support and cooperation in the fight against organized crime between the countries of the region and the EU, as well as the USA, is inevitable. Likewise, the fight against organized crime is also a prerequisite for the overall development of the region and its democratization; on the other hand, a hotbed and oasis in which organized crime flourishes on the very border of the EU unequivocally represents an enormous security threat to the EU itself.
Therefore, the common interest for stronger cooperation in this field is undoubtedly evident.
