Between the 9th and 1 Ith of September, 2026, France organised a seminar on Intelligence and Tackling
Organised Crime in paris. Thanks to the 46 participants representing 19 countries of the Intelligence
College in Europe, and to the 15 structures contributingto the presentations, the following kev findings
can be mentioned.
Organised crime has become a threat for the rule of law and democratic societies. Trust towards the
institutions is at stake. Hence, it is instrumental to mobilise and to coordinate all the assets of a
democratic state to organise the response. Intelligence is one of these assets.
The three current features of organised crime are the development of new criminal markets (gold,
crypto assets, personal data), the digitalisation of organised crime (communication on encrypted apps,
recruitment) and the unleashed use of extreme violence. One Shall also acknowledge the geographical
expansion of organised crime (urban and rural areas, cyber space, maritime space) and the
rejuvenation of the persons of interest. The targets have changed as well. Beyond the criminals
themselves, their families and neighbourhood can be collateral victims.
The Intelligence Community can support the aw enforcement authorities thanks to its resources
(intelligence, tools and techniques), its expertise (IA, drones, 3D, cyber. money laundering) and its
international network. It is meant to complement, not to replace. When the threat is related to a
hostile country, the Craft Of intelligence service can be Very useful to identify the actors and to adapt
the response. ln case of a foreign interference, the awareness of the local level has to be heightened.
Intelligence is essential to detect trends and spot the next threat. It maybe a trap to believe that onlv
money drives the organised crime organisation. Intelligence mav help to define what is the next
motivation for the organised crime organisations.
When it comes to the digitalisation of organised crime, the concept of “crime as a service” allows the
inst•gators (or enablers) to commit a crime through proxies. The employers split the crime in numerous
events and entrust their implementation to numerous individuals recruited on the Internet. The head
(or heads) of the networks are Often located abroad outside of Europe, which makes international
cooperation Very useful to face the global mobility of the criminals and to track the money. Working
on organised crime thanks to intergovernmental structures like SATCEN or MAOC is essential to tackle
the international networks.
Organised crime organisations are getting more and more professionalised even if opportunism and
pragmatism are still major features of their criminal activities. One of the few constraints to their
development may be the fierce competition between them. One other limit is the human nature of
the criminals who still make mistakes.
Beyond the necessary coordination between Intelligence and law enforcement forces, France and
other partners have implemented specific response like the development of intelligence in prison, the
implementation of criminal assets freezing, the centralisation Of information in ded’cated task forces.
The cooperation between intelligence and police has allowed the two communities to learn a lot about
each other. It is important because the wav Intelligence works may be contradictory with the way the
law enforcement works. Rather than depending upon a specific regulation, what is key is to develop a
common understanding of each other crafts and a smooth articulation between the structures. Trust
in each other processes is the key to success to destabilise organised crime organisations. The issue is
not a lack of information but to learn how to orientate the sensors and how to connect the dots in this
sea Of information.
