After ten years, Interpol boss Stock is leaving office. But first he warns urgently about organized crime: drug gangs could “even destabilize industrialized countries.”
Outgoing Interpol Secretary General Jürgen Stock is sounding the alarm about gangs operating internationally. “The world is in danger of losing the fight against transnational organized crime,” Stock told the German Press Agency in New York.
The potential of these gangs to “destabilize even developed countries, for example in Europe, has also reached unprecedented proportions.”
“Global criminals act like global corporations”
Stock will step down as Secretary General of Interpol in November after a ten-year term. The Brazilian Valdecy Urquiza has the best chance of succeeding him. With 196 member states, Interpol is the world's largest police organization and coordinates international police cooperation.
Stock emphasized that the international criminal police organization has clear knowledge that mafia groups that used to operate more regionally have now spread to all parts of the world. “They have become global criminals, they act like global companies,” said the chief investigator. They had “astronomical amounts of resources” at their disposal, for example to promote human and arms trafficking.
Cocaine is Main source of income
The bandits' main source of income continues to be drug trafficking, which is also becoming an increasingly serious problem in Central Europe, including Germany. “We're talking about all kinds of drugs that are available on the criminal markets. But cocaine is currently a big problem,” Stock continued.
Despite news of record drug discoveries in the ports of Antwerp, Rotterdam and Hamburg, the price and supply on the streets did not change – a clear sign that there is no shortage. Estimates suggested that drug agents confiscated only about 15 to 20 percent of all imports.
Fentanyl as a particularly big problem
This is dangerous, among other things, because the synthetic opioid fentanyl is increasingly found mixed into the drugs. “We can currently see that it is also creeping into the European markets,” said Stock.
Fentanyl is potentially more dangerous than other drugs; experts say it is around 50 times more potent than heroin. Just two milligrams is considered a potentially fatal dose. In the United States, fentanyl has already led to an enormous drug problem with tens of thousands of deaths.
According to the US national institute that studies drug abuse, more than 70,000 people died from overdoses of synthetic opioids – especially fentanyl – in 2021 alone.
Violence on the streets
The drug business always leads to violence – crimes are also increasing at the end of the illegal supply chain. There, on the so-called last mile, local gangs organized street sales. “And because it is so profitable, they are fighting for their territory even in this phase.”
Examples include Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands. “But there are also reports from Germany, there are signs that this fight has begun at least in parts of Germany,” said Stock. Recently there were two explosions in Cologne; The background is presumably the fight between drug gangs.
In order to counter the threat posed by gangs, even more cooperation between national law enforcement authorities is needed, said Stock. The state authorities would have to specifically target the ten to 15 largest groups.
