Two thirds of Europe's most dangerous criminal networks use violence.

Omissions

• The claim fixes no time period; the verified figure comes from Europol's April 2024 report, which was over two years old by the 2026-07-08 session.
• A 2025 Europol follow-up report ('Criminal opportunism — how the EU's most threatening criminal networks exploit society') exists, but its exact share of networks using violence could not be verified from admissible (non-social-media) sources. Unusable social-media snippets suggested that follow-up reports a figure of around 60%, which would make 'two-thirds' slightly high if applied to the same population — this could not be confirmed or refuted from the official Europol release itself.
• The 2024 Europol report also notes that about 32% of the most threatening networks intentionally refrain from violence to avoid detection by law enforcement.
• The same report indicates that the use of corruption (the 'over 70%' part of the original statement) is even more widespread among these networks than violence, so citing 'two-thirds' alone slightly understates corruption's relative prominence.

Sources

• PrimaryEuropol — Decoding the EU's most threatening criminal networks (report PDF)This enabled Europol to single out the 821 most threatening criminal networks operating in the EU. Their 25 000 members commit crimes for profit and are capable [of using violence and corruption as enablers].
• PrimaryEuropol — Criminal opportunism: how the EU's most threatening criminal networks exploit society (2025 follow-up newsroom release)Europol report reveals how 76% of the networks identified in 2024 have since been disrupted, but new threats emerge and old ones persist.
• Secondaryeucrim.eu — Key Features of Most Threatening Criminal Networks in the EUAccording to the report, these 821 networks are active in a range of crime [areas]... While 32% do not use violence to avoid detection by law, most networks use violence [i.e., approximately 68% of the most threatening networks].