European Real Estate Is Being Used To Launder Money, EU Says

Townhomes under construction are seen in this aerial photograph taken over a Lennar Corp. development in San Diego, California, US. (Photographer: Bing Guan/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Over a third of the most-threatening criminal networks in the European Union are laundering their profits through real estate, according to a report on organized crime across the region.

Europol, the EU agency for law enforcement cooperation, found that among the criminal groups that pose the most serious threat, 41% used property to launder their illicit proceeds, with luxury items, cash-intensive businesses like hospitality, and cryptocurrencies also popular methods.

“There is almost no actor in the serious and organized crime landscape who is not linked, in one way or another, to a sector of the legal economy, whether to commit the criminal activity, to disguise the criminal activity, or to launder their criminal profits,” according to the report.

The mapping of criminal groups comes as the EU attempts to crack down on organized crime, amid drug-related violence in a number of member states, including Belgium and Sweden, and record cocaine seizures at Europe's second-largest port, the Port of Antwerp.

The report identifies 821 criminal groups — with an overall membership of over 25,000 — that pose the highest-risk to the bloc, and warned they are able to “inflict significant damage on the EU's internal security, rule of law, and economy.”

The gangs are borderless, international and their most common activity is drug trafficking, with half involved in the illegal narcotics trade, the report found. Other activities that the criminal groups are involved in include fraud, property crime, migrant smuggling and trafficking in human beings.

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