Criminal networks in the European Union are penetrating legal businesses across the 27-nation bloc and rely heavily on corruption to develop their activities. That's the bleak picture emerging from a report published Friday by the EU crime agency.According to the agency, 86% of those networks are able to infiltrate the legal economy to hide their activities and launder their criminal profits.
Their profits from drug and arms trafficking as well as tax defrauding are invested throughout Europe in real estate, supermarkets, hotels and other commercial activities, it said.Another characteristic of these networks is the borderless nature of their structure, with 112 nationalities represented among their members, the report said.