The third meeting of the Working Group which brings together the European countries most affected by the pandemic and which deals with the risks of infiltration of organized crime into the economy and, more generally, the threats to security following the spread of COVID 19.
The project, conceived and co-directed by Italy and Europol, represents an international control room, unique in the world, aimed at strengthening international police cooperation to counter the criminal risk associated with the spread of the pandemic.
In addition to Italy, Europol and Interpol, the police forces of Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Holland, Poland, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom were present.
Two focuses on the agenda, introduced by the Executive Director of Europol, Catherine De Bolle and by the Deputy Director General of the Department of Public Security, Prefect Vittorio Rizzi: the sexual exploitation of minors and the pollution of the economy by the dark money of the mafias.
“We are going through the second wave of the pandemic and organized crime will not miss an opportunity to take advantage of the situation to increase its profits, targeting the weakest subjects such as children and commercial companies weakened by the economic crisis. Our latest report analyzes the last eight months in which we can trace how criminals have exploited uncertainty and change for new illicit opportunities, ”began Catherine De Bolle.
"Prevention and analysis: these are the guidelines of our action to combat post Covid crime. We cannot wait for the judicial evidence but we must arrive sooner, thanks to international police cooperation. We must prevent the restrictions due to the pandemic and the increased presence of children on the internet from making them victims of extremely dangerous criminal abuse, just as we must use all our information and resources to prevent corruption and infiltration into the economy, already in crisis by the pandemic. ”, The words of the Prefect Vittorio Rizzi.
The path traced is to define a common language and shared checklists at European level to collect data on post-Covid crime. The goal is to rapidly define law enforcement strategies, exploiting the competitive advantage offered by the exchange of police information at an international level, which can anticipate criminal threats that, like the pandemic, could spread globally.