Europe's most dangerous gangs' membership explodes five-fold to nearly half a million

Europe’s most dangerous gangs have drastically expanded their membership five-fold as they close in on half a million members within their ranks, an intelligence report has found.

The report, from Europol, has revealed the scale of the “corporations of crime” that operate in plain sight.

The 54-page report has showcased the scale of drug trafficking, cybercrime, and migrant-smuggling operations throughout the continent.

The police agency estimated that 400,000 gangsters work for crime syndicates, which is a five-fold increase in the last two years.

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“Criminals are thriving,” Magnus Brunner, the EU’s head of migration, said on Friday.

The report titled “Decoding the EU’s most threatening criminal networks” was unveiled in Brussels at the European Commission headquarters.

There are 731 gangs across Europe that have been classified as the “most threatening criminal networks,” that stretch from Latin America to the Balkans.

Police had dismantled 623 gangs between 2024 and 2026, however, 533 new ones have reemerged to take their place.

Mr Brunner said: “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.”

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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.”

Encrypted phones as well as virtual private networks, fake social media accounts, and front companies, are all used to avoid detection.

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