New UN campaign against organised crime
* Global crime rackets pull in an annual turnover of $870b
* This sum is the equivalent of 1.5 percent of global GDP
AUSTRIA: The UN's drugs and crime office launched a new media
awareness campaign on Monday to highlight the threat posed by themulti-billion
dollar operations run by organised crime groups worldwide. International
crime rackets pull in an estimated annual turnover of $870 billion (710
billion euros), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
said in a statement issued early Monday.
That sum was the equivalent of 1.5 percent of global GDP -- or six
times the amount officially spent on development aid around the world,
it added.
“Transnational organised crime reaches into every region and every
country across the world,” said Yury Fedotov, executive director of
UNODC, which is based in Vienna.
“Stopping this transnational threat represents one of the
international community's greatest global challenges,” he added.
UNODC'S multimedia campaign will underline the huge sums of money
involved in organised crime, which covers everything from drug and arms
trafficking to cyber crime to the smuggling of migrants.
And it will stress that these are anything but victimless crimes.
“Crime groups can destabilise countries and entire regions,
undermining development assistance in those areas and increasing
domestic corruption, extortion, racketeering and violence,” said UNODC's
statement.
The agency identified drug trafficking as by far the most lucrative
trade for criminals: they estimated it brings in $320 billion per year.
The counterfeiting of goods, it said, brought in $250 billion
annually.
Human trafficking and migrant smuggling totals an estimated $39
billion a year; while trading of ivory and animal parts generates $3.5
billion in criminal revenue.
According to the World Health Organisation, around 1.0 percent of the
world's medicines are thought to be counterfeit, a figure which rises as
high as 30 percent in parts of Asia, Africa and South America.
“Money ... is laundered through banking systems, undermining
legitimate international commerce,” said UNODC in its statement.
AFP
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