More than half of Europe's most dangerous criminal networks are involved in drug smuggling.

Omissions

• Europol's own executive summary states 'half' of the 821 most threatening networks are involved in drug trafficking as (one of) their main criminal activity(-ies), while the claim says 'more than half' — the exact share in the full report could not be verified from the available sources.
• Europol's statistic is qualified as drug trafficking being '(one of) their main criminal activity(-ies)', which is slightly narrower than the claim's broader wording 'active in drug smuggling'.
• The report was published in April 2024, more than two years before the session date; Europol published a follow-up analysis ('Criminal opportunism', 2026) on the same networks, but updated figures for these specific shares could not be verified in the available sources.

Sources

• PrimaryEuropol — Decoding the EU's most threatening criminal networks (Executive Summary)Half of the most threatening criminal networks are involved in drug trafficking as (one of) their main criminal activity(-ies).
• PrimaryEuropol Newsroom — Criminal opportunism: how the EU's most threatening criminal networks exploit societyThe networks covered in the new Europol report comprise over 400 000 members from 118 nationalities, operate across drug trafficking, cybercrime ... Europol report reveals how 76% of the networks identified in 2024 have since been disrupted, but new threats emerge and old ones persist.
• Secondaryeucrim — Key Features of Most Threatening Criminal Networks in the EU71% of these networks engage in corruption to facilitate criminal activity or obstruct law enforcement or judicial proceedings. While 32% do not use violence. ... these 821 networks are active in a range of crime areas: drug trafficking, fraud, property crime, migrant smuggling, and trafficking in human beings.