EU Drug Market: Heroin and other opioids — Criminal networks operating in the heroin market
This resource is part of EU Drug Market: Heroin and other opioids — In-depth analysis by the EMCDDA and Europol.
Criminal networks involved in the illicit heroin trade, from production in Southwest Asia to distribution in the EU, are business-oriented, cooperative and adaptable. In some instances, they share resources and infrastructure, such as couriers and means of transportation, or participate in joint criminal ventures where they invest and share profits.
The wide geographical scope of their operations and the use of collaborators in key locations for heroin trafficking generate a high degree of flexibility, allowing criminal networks to swiftly reroute consignments or organise new shipments. This flexibility is further enhanced by infiltration into the legal business environment, corruption and the use of encrypted communication solutions, which allow the remote coordination of heroin shipments. The use of money launderers is also a key facilitator for these networks, as flexibility in the movement of funds enables them to both perform and expand their illicit activities, potentially on a global scale.
Composition of criminal networks in Europe
The trafficking and distribution of heroin is the mainstay activity for some criminal networks operating in Europe that rely on well-established infrastructure and contacts. Based on trust, often through ethnicity or kinship ties, these networks have evolved to be highly flexible through a process of constant adaptation in an attempt to minimise risks and maximise profits.
As the Netherlands continues to be one of the main hubs for heroin distribution in the EU (see Section Heroin trafficking within the EU), a broad range of criminal networks composed of various nationalities are active in the country (see Box Importation of heroin and cocaine by Turkish networks to Europe). For example, Dutch criminal networks cooperate extensively with other crime groups on the importation of heroin and other drugs. They receive and store shipments of heroin for distribution to final destination markets in various parts of the EU. These networks are also involved in the diversion of acetic anhydride and have established heroin processing laboratories in the Netherlands (see Section Opiate production in Europe: a relatively rare occurrence).
Europol intelligence also suggests that criminal networks comprising members with a Kurdish background continue to be among the main importers and facilitators of heroin distribution in Europe. These networks orchestrate the wholesale supply of heroin and maintain control over various segments of the supply chain, including key connections to suppliers in production countries. They have also established legal businesses in key locations along the trafficking routes to facilitate their illicit activities, particularly in countries along the Balkan route and in distribution hubs in Western Europe.
Together with Turkish criminal networks, some of which comprise individuals with a Kurdish background, Pakistani networks and groups of Iranian origin also play a key role in the importation of heroin into the EU (see Box Lorry drivers smuggling heroin into and through the EU). For example, Pakistani criminal networks import large quantities of heroin to the EU and redistribute these shipments to mid-level and retail distributors.
In addition, criminal networks originating from or linked to the Western Balkan region appear to maintain their role in the supply and distribution of heroin in the EU. While some may be involved in wholesale trafficking of heroin in the EU, most appear to be active in trafficking and distribution across EU Member States, or in providing logistical services, such as storage and transportation. These criminal networks have also been linked to other drug trafficking activities and large-scale trafficking of firearms to the EU.
African criminal networks also have some involvement in heroin trafficking and distribution in the EU. West African criminal groups, especially Nigerian groups, continue to be involved in the importation and distribution of heroin in the EU, largely using couriers who move heroin from Africa through major EU airports.
Involvement of heroin trafficking networks in wider criminality
In some cases, criminal networks involved in heroin supply overlap with those involved in the trafficking of other drugs, precursors, weapons and other illicit commodities, and also the trafficking of human beings.
As with other illicit drugs, criminal networks exploit vulnerable individuals to smuggle heroin into and across the EU, as well as for street-level distribution. In August 2020, Europol reported the dismantling of a criminal group, led by a Lithuanian national and consisting of at least 20 individuals, that had been operating a complex heroin trafficking and distribution network since 2015, targeting Ireland and the United Kingdom (Eurojust, 2021). The network recruited and trafficked at least 65 individuals (principally of Lithuanian nationality) from vulnerable socioeconomic backgrounds, some of whom were drug-dependent, to act as drug dealers or couriers. The proceeds of the operation were laundered through the purchase of real estate and other financial transactions (Eurojust, 2021; Europol, 2020a).
The Western Balkan region plays a key role in multiple forms of serious and organised crime, including drug and weapons trafficking, migrant smuggling and the trafficking of human beings. This has often led to criminal networks in the region being involved in a range of illicit activities. For example, some criminal networks that are active in heroin trafficking on the Balkan route also source weapons from countries in the Western Balkans, where firearms and related expertise are widely available (De Schutter and Duquet 2023). These firearms are then trafficked to countries in the EU, often as part of multi-commodity shipments or hidden in vehicles, similar to the way in which heroin is smuggled (Europol, 2022).
In 2021, a Slovenian cell of the Kavaćki clan was dismantled. This followed over 20 searches by Slovenian criminal investigators of premises in Ljubljana, Koper, Kranj and Maribor. The investigation confirmed the clan’s involvement in 81 heroin, cocaine, cannabis and weapons smuggling crimes that generated an estimated EUR 2 million in criminal proceeds. The drugs were transported from Spain and the Netherlands to Slovenia, for onward distribution to Austria, Croatia, Germany and Italy, while the firearms were routed from Slovakia to Slovenia, Serbia and the Netherlands. The criminal group communicated through the encrypted Sky ECC platform (Republic of Slovenia Ministry of the Interior, 2021).
Roles within criminal networks
Criminal networks involved in heroin trafficking into and through the EU sometimes have a specific geographical focus or defined roles along the trafficking chains. Akin to a legal business, heroin trafficking involves multiple exchanges across a number of intermediaries. Some of the roles are also associated with the higher echelons and organisation of the criminal activities, while others pertain to lower-level facilitation. As such, it is important to understand the roles that various individuals undertake in these operations.
The roles observed in heroin trafficking are driven largely by the business and logistical needs associated with the stages of the operations, from production and processing to transportation and distribution. The wide geographic scope of heroin trafficking requires criminals to be deployed in key hubs on the trafficking routes and the mechanisms employed by the networks to remain undetected by law enforcement.
There is evidence to suggest that some criminal networks take on multiple steps of the heroin trafficking and distribution chain, relying on their own resources and members. However, as crime-as-a-service is becoming more prominent in drug trafficking, this is also visible in the heroin trade, where criminal networks often use a range of external brokers, service providers and facilitators. This includes areas such as logistics and the management of criminal finances, which are often carried out by criminals (individuals or networks) that are not a part of those orchestrating the heroin trafficking itself.
Production
- Acetic anhydride suppliers: Sourcing acetic anhydride, for example by diverting it from the legitimate industry, and selling it to other criminals (brokers or heroin producers).
- Acetic anhydride brokers (1): Purchasing acetic anhydride from suppliers or from other intermediaries and selling it to heroin producers or suppliers, or to other intermediaries trafficking acetic anhydride, without being necessarily involved in production or trafficking of heroin. As in the case of heroin trafficking, there can be multiple layers of brokers acting as intermediaries between acetic anhydride suppliers and heroin producers.
- Heroin producers: Producing heroin or carrying out one or several steps in the production cycle, in the main production regions, particularly Afghanistan, or in the EU. Although there is a significant intelligence gap concerning heroin production in the main production regions, several facilitators may be involved in the final steps of heroin production, processing and adulteration in the EU. These include:
- chemists and other specialists working in heroin laboratories;
- facilitators arranging the establishment of or access to premises used for heroin production, processing and adulteration;
- waste disposers.
Wholesale supply
- Wholesale heroin suppliers: Supplying heroin from the production region. These networks can traffic heroin with their own resources and may sell the drugs to brokers or mid-level distributors. They are often located in key hubs for heroin production (either close to the production region or in major transhipment points such as the UAE or Türkiye) and may be in contact with heroin producers and distributors.
- Brokers intermediating wholesale heroin trafficking operations: Operating independently from the drug trafficking networks to which they deliver various services against a fee or a share of the profits. This may include negotiating drug purchases and buying and reselling drugs from and to various criminal networks. They may be active both outside and inside the EU, including in key points along the trafficking routes.
Transportation and distribution
- Organisers: Arranging organisational aspects of the criminal activities, such as contact and communication between buyers and sellers, recruitment of facilitators and deployment of resources to key locations. Their tasks may include organising the shipment at departure, transhipment or transit points, facilitating the movement of drugs from one means of transportation to another, delivery of the drugs to buyers, and arranging payments and documentation for the consignments.
- Logistics facilitators: Providing access to logistical services for a fee, to multiple criminal networks. They may play a similar or overlapping role to the brokers and the organisers, often setting up and granting access to networks of companies or means of transportation that they provide as a service to heroin and acetic anhydride traffickers.
- Mid-level distributors: Covering several stages of the trafficking chain, they may be a branch of a wider network but can also be a separate network purchasing wholesale amounts of drugs from wholesale suppliers, from brokers or from other networks acting as intermediaries along the trafficking route. They may sell the drugs further to other networks (in the order of tens of kilograms) or take over the remaining stages of the trafficking chain down to the street-level distribution on user markets, either physically or online. They may also be involved in storing, packaging and potentially cutting or adulterating the drugs.
- Retail distributors: Selling heroin to the end user, physically or online, typically in small quantities.
Other facilitators
- In addition to the main players in the heroin and acetic anhydride trade, a variety of other criminals are involved in various stages of the logistical chains associated with the movement and concealment of the illicit substances and illegal profits. These can be members of the drugs trafficking networks, or brokers, individual service providers or members of standalone networks acting as service providers.
- Professionals may be corrupted into supporting and facilitating criminal activities. Examples include real estate agents, economists, financial experts and accountants, notaries, port workers and other officials.
- Money brokers specialising in moving and laundering illicit profits of the heroin trafficking networks may be involved.
- Other facilitators include:
- couriers and drivers or staff operating the vehicles used to transport heroin or acetic anhydride;
- providers of transportation services or vehicles to move drugs;
- experts in building customised concealments;
- individuals cutting or packaging heroin;
- individuals recovering the heroin from cover loads;
- those corrupting individuals in key locations;
- those setting up or infiltrating legal business structures needed to move the illicit substances;
- ‘strawmen’ used as a front to conceal the real ownership of companies or bank accounts;
- providers of document fraud services (for example, the supply or production of fraudulent transportation, commercial or identity documents);
- those arranging (access to) storage locations for drugs or money;
- street distributors;
- money collectors and money mules;
- individuals responsible for the protection of the drug loads, violence, extortion, weapons or the security needs of the network;
- individuals responsible for the packaging or repackaging of drugs.
Enablers of heroin trafficking
Legal business structures
Similar to other criminal activities involving the movement of illicit commodities, the trafficking of heroin to the EU relies heavily on the misuse of legal business structures. Companies are used as fronts for import-export, transportation and logistics to enable and orchestrate heroin smuggling activities. Legal business structures used by heroin traffickers are spread along the trafficking routes, from key hubs close to the main production sites to entry points into the EU and a variety of other European countries. Using this method allows criminals to track, monitor and control shipments. It also generates additional challenges for law enforcement authorities attempting to piece together the processes behind trafficking operations and the routes used.
In some cases, criminal networks use transport companies to pick up consignments at transit points without the companies being aware of the illicit cargo. Similarly, storage facilities may be rented without the storage company being aware of the criminal activity.
While some of the legal business structures exploited may be companies involved in legitimate commercial activity, others are sham businesses set up purely as fronts for criminal operations. To conceal the true ownership of these businesses, ‘strawmen’ may be used. Specialised criminals sometimes provide access to legal business structures established specifically for the purpose of facilitating the movement of illicit commodities. Criminals may also carry out legitimate commercial activity through these business structures to establish a positive history, which may reduce the risk of detection. Alternatively, existing legitimate businesses with track records of licit trade may be acquired.
The diversion and trafficking of acetic anhydride and cutting agents are also closely linked to legal business structures. Such structures may be used to divert acetic anhydride from the licit industry by falsifying permissions and other documentation (see Box Document fraud).
Criminal finances and money laundering
Profits from heroin trafficking are believed to be collected primarily in cash. Cash seizures in crucial countries along heroin trafficking routes may offer clues regarding reverse money laundering associated with heroin trafficking to and within the EU.
Similar to other drug types and areas of crime, criminal networks involved in heroin trafficking use the hawala system to minimise the risks of detection and theft. This is an underground banking service where money is transferred between unregulated brokers, without any funds necessarily being physically moved.
Heroin profits may be reinvested in new criminal ventures, including further drug shipments, and can be laundered in jurisdictions outside the EU (see Box UAE: a hub for criminal money laundering and coordination). Criminal proceeds may also be exchanged or reinvested, both inside and outside Europe, through real estate, gold or luxury goods, the last two of these then being moved to where the end beneficiaries are based. In some cases, however, heroin may become a currency as well. Facilitators of the trade may be paid in heroin instead of cash. As part of barter deals, heroin may also be exchanged for acetic anhydride, cannabis or synthetic drugs trafficked to destinations outside the EU.
The criminal proceeds derived from the trafficking of synthetic opioids appear to be laundered in similar ways to those from the trafficking of heroin (see Box Laundering of criminal proceeds from synthetic opioids).
Corruption
Criminal networks involved in heroin trafficking use corruption to infiltrate both public and private sector organisations. This is a significant enabler of criminal activity, and opportunities for corruption exist at every stage of the heroin supply chain. This may involve selling information to criminal groups, facilitating the transportation of heroin (particularly at ports, airports and land borders), the diversion of chemicals to illegal markets and obstructing investigations.
With the growing fluidity of trafficking routes, transportation methods and modi operandi, corruption can play a key role in influencing the attractiveness of a particular port of entry. Factors that may affect vulnerability to corruption include port ownership and governance, infrastructure and the availability of scanners, and local economic strength. Ports with relevance for heroin trafficking may be exposed to the risk of corruption and money laundering (Europol and the Security Steering Committee of the ports of Antwerp, Hamburg/Bremerhaven and Rotterdam, 2023; Scaturro and Kemp, 2022).
Violence
Violence associated with the EU heroin market is relatively uncommon, particularly at the wholesale level. To a large extent, this is because the principal criminal networks operating in this market are well-established, business-oriented and largely cooperative. An additional factor has been the consistent stability of the heroin market in the EU – both in terms of supply from Afghanistan and the user base. However, any disruption to this equilibrium poses a significant threat of intensified confrontation and violence in the heroin market. A potential growth of the synthetic opioid market could create instability, challenging the existing order and allowing new criminal networks to enter the market – potentially resulting in an escalation of violence as the existing criminal networks fight to maintain the current operational stability and new networks vie for market share.
(1) For the purpose of this analysis, brokers are to be understood as individuals or networks operating outside of heroin trafficking networks and delivering their services to the latter for a fee.
References
Consult the list of references used in this module.