In the early stage of the democratic process criminal groups had free reins to gain the monopoly of violence and increased their finances fostering their illicit activities in the grey and black areas of the market

In this tiny remote corner between Kosovo, Albania and Montenegro, illicit smuggling is the rule, backed by inefficient and often accommodating authorities. Roberta Petrillo reports.

EU Commission proposes a legislative directive for the confiscation of criminal assets at European level. An unprecedented and crucial step in the fight against organized crime.

OCCRP continues its People of Interest project by releasing the public records of Svetlana Ražnatović, a turbo folk legend and wife of notorious mobster Zeljko“Arkan” Ražnatović.

Italian mafias are secular political entities that control a territory through the systemic violence, accumulating capital and infiltrating legal economy. They form with their accomplices a criminal social body that strongly influences politics.

Having always been described as a pro-Russia, Yanukovych has a crucial role for the troubled path of Ukraine towards EU integration. A deeper look shows what the real aims of Ukranian political elites are.

How has it been possible to have allowed the cartels to achieve such a power in so few years, and let them tie a potentially fatal noose around the Country’s neck?

Everybody knows it, mafia does not exist in France. Organised crime maybe, but what kind? Let's take a look at the recent events that took place in France that could definitely define the past months as the “bloody summer”.

Information gathered by Balkanalysis.com from police sources, media reports and special field research in Athens indicates a steep increase in organized crime in Greece.

Greece over the past few years has become a source country concerning the entrance of a large number of illegal immigrants, mostly from Asian and African states, who enter mainly through the Greek-Turkish borders.