National Threat Assessment 2008. Organised Crime - Politie

On the other hand, EU membership is subject to strict requirements. This also
creates opportunities, not only in economic and financial terms, but also in terms
of safety and the fight against crime and corruption. For example, the various
acceding countries are supported by special EU programmes in their attempts
to improve crime prevention and to execute criminal investigations according
to European standards. Improved collaboration and information exchange may
result in criminal investigations achieving successes quicker.
In countries elsewhere in the world the government no longer actually has
authority over its entire territory or a blind eye is turned to clandestine activities.
These countries may turn into sanctuaries from where criminal organisations
can operate freely. Examples of these failed states can be found in Africa and
the Middle East, as well as in the Balkans. These sanctuaries may have
worldwide harmful effects, including in the Netherlands. The National Crime
Squad’s CPA on Cocaine includes examples of Colombian criminal organisations
that move to West Africa in order to supply cocaine to Europe from there.
Inspections of aircraft and ships by the local authorities are virtually absent.
Failed states and other foreign sanctuaries may form a shielded structure of
opportunity, including for professional lawbreakers from the Netherlands.
Exerting a certain level of influence on a weak government may provide
unprecedented opportunities for corruption and use of government facilities,
for example, to produce forgeries, smuggle in diplomatic bags and engage
in the arms trade.
In contrast to these possible threats associated with globalisation, the increased
importance given to corporate responsibility should also be mentioned. This
resulted in the Code Tabaksblat on corporate governance. The increased focus
on integrity is a limiting factor for potential offenders and supervisory regimes.
As was already mentioned in the NTA 2004, the development of organised
crime reflects the societal changes (p.91, abridged version).
7.5 The Netherlands and abroad
The assignment for this NTA consisted of mapping out organised crime and
the level of threat it poses to Dutch society. This means that consequences
suffered abroad were not considered to determine the level of threat of a
criminal phenomenon. This limitation has had consequences for the qualification
of the threat level posed by the commercial production of images of child abuse
(section 2.9) and by the exporting of scrap vehicles and scrap electrical
equipment (section 3.5), for example. Nevertheless, the Netherlands plays
a major distributive role on illegal markets.
chapter 7 - reflections
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