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  "path": "/news/europe-gangs-membership-increase-europol",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-27T10:43:18.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.gbnews.com",
  "tags": [
    "Fraudster posed as influencer to steal thousands of pounds worth of jewellery and antiques while house-sitting",
    "Four Afghan nationals face jail after grooming and raping teenage girl then fleeing UK in back of a lorry",
    "Henry Nowak's killer was NOT handcuffed by police during arrest, new bodycam footage shows",
    "The GB News Editorial Charter"
  ],
  "textContent": "\n\n\nEurope’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.\n\nThe report, from Europol, has revealed the scale of the “corporations of crime” that operate in plain sight.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nThe 54-page report has showcased the scale of drug trafficking, cybercrime, and migrant-smuggling operations throughout the continent.\n\nThe police agency estimated that 400,000 gangsters work for crime syndicates, which is a five-fold increase in the last two years.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nTRENDING\n\nStories\n\nVideos\n\nYour Say\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n“Criminals are thriving,” Magnus Brunner, the EU’s head of migration, said on Friday.\n\nThe report titled “Decoding the EU’s most threatening criminal networks” was unveiled in Brussels at the European Commission headquarters.\n\nThere are 731 gangs across Europe that have been classified as the “most threatening criminal networks,” that stretch from Latin America to the Balkans.\n\nPolice had dismantled 623 gangs between 2024 and 2026, however, 533 new ones have reemerged to take their place.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nMr Brunner said: “Europol found that the criminal groups are very flexible, to put it that way.\n\n“They shift, they merge, they reinvent themselves constantly making them harder to track on the one hand but also to dismantle on the other.\n\n“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.\n\n“These are not street gangs, these are corporations of crime ‘Ndrangheta multinational corporations.”\n\n### LATEST DEVELOPMENTS\n\n\n\n\n  * Fraudster posed as influencer to steal thousands of pounds worth of jewellery and antiques while house-sitting\n  * Four Afghan nationals face jail after grooming and raping teenage girl then fleeing UK in back of a lorry\n  * Henry Nowak's killer was NOT handcuffed by police during arrest, new bodycam footage shows\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nJürgen Ebner, the executive director of Europol, said: “The report clearly shows that these criminal groups that remained.\n\n“They have a very strong financial back up, they use sophisticated counter-measures.\n\n“They use high levels of corruption, they are globally internationally connected cells across the EU and beyond, an international enterprise.”\n\nHe added: “They operate in the fluid criminal ecosystem.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n“When they are under law enforcement pressure they regroup they reshuffle and they can easily set up structures new, they can replace people.\n\n“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.”\n\nEncrypted phones as well as virtual private networks, fake social media accounts, and front companies, are all used to avoid detection.\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n**Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter**",
  "title": "Europe's most dangerous gangs' membership explodes five-fold to nearly half a million"
}