Asian crime gangs found to take in $90 bn a year
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UN studies cross-border crime; human trafficking among top money-spinners
A first-ever comprehensive study of transnational organised crime in East Asia and the Pacific has revealed that regional crime syndicates generate roughly US$90 billion (Bt2.8 trillion) annually.
The annual revenues of criminal groups, from activities including human trafficking and migrant smuggling, illegal drugs, environmental crime, counterfeit goods and fake medicines, were released in a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) yesterday.
The top money-spinners for criminals in East Asia and the Pacific include trading in illegal wood products and illegal e-waste (electrical and electronic waste), according to the report.
The deputy head of the Police Department for Crime Prevention at Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security, Do Kim Tuyen, said that in Vietnam, the top money-spinner was economic crime, particularly from the illicit trade of wood and wildlife products, followed by drugs, counterfeit goods and human trafficking.
The report takes an unprecedented look at how criminal enterprises have developed alongside legitimate commercial businesses and have taken advantage of distribution and logistics chains.
It provides estimates of the values to prompt public debate and makes recommendations on ways of addressing these issues.
A particular problem is migrant smuggling from East and Southeast Asia to the US and European Union and the report reserves a chapter that focuses exclusively on China and Vietnam, due to their prominence as source countries typifying these flows.
Remarkably, the UNODC estimates that up to 36,000 Chinese migrants use smuggling services to reach the EU on an annual basis.
China is the main dumping ground for e-waste in the region, while Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam are secondary centres for this trade, according to the report.
At present, the largest global sources of fraudulent medicine appear to be Chinese and Indian. However, the report warns that as law enforcement and regulatory pressure has increased within China, key aspects of production may be moving elsewhere, to North Korea, Myanmar and Vietnam.
The report “Transnational Organised Crime in East Asia and the Pacific: A Threat Assessment” suggests that it is vital to integrate national responses into international strategies in order to combat transnational organised crime in the region more effectively.
The UNODC’s Regional Representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Jeremy Douglas, said that these transnational criminal activities were now a global concern as illicit profits from crime in East Asia and the Pacific can destabilise societies around the globe.
“We need to organise a co-ordinated response now. It takes a network to defeat a network,” he said.
