Covid-19: new challenges for the fight against organised crime

While countries all over the world are taking action to curb the spread and consequences of the pandemic, organised crime is exploiting this unprecedented crisis. This is the observation made by the Europol agency in a report published on 27 March 2020.

Criminal groups adapting to the Covid situation

Starting with cybercrime: with the development of teleworking, distance learning and electronic payments, “the Covid-19 pandemic crisis has more than ever before highlighted the great importance of information and communication technologies”, said Dr. Zouli Bonkoungou, ECOWAS Commissioner for Telecommunications and Information Technologies, at the launch of three OCWAR projects on 30 October. In parallel, there has been a marked increase in cybercrime, exploiting the vulnerabilities of sometimes ill-prepared computer systems: misinformation exploiting vulnerable people, increase in malware attacks and the related financial losses. “For example, Benin lost USD 518,488 in the first half of 2020, while Burkina Faso lost USD 1,242,820 between 1 April and 31 August 2020”, says Dr. Zouli Bonkoungou.

Another example: the significant development of legal and illegal online gambling observed since the onset of the health crisis is also a source of vulnerability in terms of money laundering or terrorist financing.

Criminal groups have also taken advantage of the fact that governments are focusing primarily on the management of the health crisis to continue or develop certain forms of trafficking, such as for medical products, despite the closure of borders. For example, at the end of March 2020, the World Health Organization warned about the “increasing number of falsified medical products that claim to prevent, detect, treat or cure Covid-19”. Interpol announced that Operation Pangea had “resulted in 121 arrests worldwide and the seizure of potentially dangerous pharmaceuticals worth more than USD 14m”.

For further reading: “The MEDISAFE project offers a comprehensive approach to combating counterfeit medicines”

For Xavier Cousquer and Juan Gama, Co-Directors of the European Union EL PAcCTO programme, the priority is therefore clear: “We need to make up for lost time and remobilise all the available resources as soon as possible to tackle organised crime.”

Focus on a regional and multisectoral approach

The need to tackle criminal activities in a coordinated manner is central to the three OCWAR projects. Faced with criminal activities that are multifaceted and transnational by nature, dismantling criminal networks requires a regional and multisectoral approach. The OCWAR projects have been designed as a coherent response to this challenge, with three complementary components:

 • Fight against cybercrime and reinforce cybersecurity (OCWAR-C);

 • Fight against money laundering and terrorist financing (OCWAR-M);

 • Fight against large-scale trafficking (OCWAR-T).

OCWAR-T is cofinanced by the European Union and Federal Republic of Germany and implemented by GIZ, while the first two projects are implemented by Expertise France with EU financing. They will benefit 15 ECOWAS Member States and Mauritania.
 

The simultaneous work on three thematic areas aims to develop synergies and cooperation between countries. To secure the cyberspace in West Africa, the OCWAR-C project has helped ECOWAS develop the future regional strategy for cybersecurity and the fight against cybercrime, as well as the regional policy for the protection of critical infrastructure. “It’s real co-construction work”, explains Rabiyatou Bah, coordinator of the OCWAR-C project for Expertise France. These two documents will be submitted for validation by the ministers of ECOWAS responsible for telecommunications/information and communication technologies during their seventeenth meeting, from 23 to 26 November 2020.

This multi-thematic approach is also central to the EL PAcCTO programme, which is working on the entire penal chain (police, justice, prison system). Funded by the European Union, EL PAcCTO is a regional cooperation programme against organised transnational crime in Latin America. It is implemented by Expertise France and FIIAPP, with support from IILA and the Camões Institute, and is supporting 18 partner countries of the programme in the region.

Interinstitutional coordination central to the response

Today, faced with the reactivity of criminal groups in the Covid context, “there is much to do, starting with work on intelligence and an analysis of the various threats”, explain Xavier Cousquer and Juan Gama. The objective: anticipate as much as possible the future trends, particularly in rapidly developing areas such as cyberspace. The objective of the Covid Channel, launched by EL PAcCTO in the spring, was precisely to allow European and Latin American police services, judicial institutions and prison systems to easily and quickly exchange their experiences, failures and successes concerning the challenges related to the management of the health crisis.

Interinstitutional and regional coordination is also a major issue and priority for the programme: “We need to be able to more effectively coordinate the responses to these challenges”, they say, “at national level, of course, but also at supranational level”. Fighting against organised crime firstly requires more effectively coordinating the action of law enforcement and judicial institutions: this is the objective of the multidisciplinary investigation teams, a mechanism for which EL PAcCTO is supporting the implementation. These teams bring together personnel specialised in the same thematic area, for example, environmental crime and human trafficking, from different institutions, mainly law enforcement and judicial institutions. The EL PAcCTO programme is also helping set up mechanisms to strengthen cooperation between countries, such as the creation of joint investigation teams and the Latin American Police Cooperation Centre at the Panama-Costa Rica border, which was inaugurated in June 2019.

Money, the crux of the matter

The last point raised by EL PAcCTO is the importance of focusing more systematically on the financial aspects of organised crime. “The identification, confiscation and recovery of the proceeds of crime, as well as the fight against money laundering and corruption, are the hardest blows we can deal to organised crime”, they say.

This priority is also central to the OCWAR-M project in West Africa, which focuses on the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing (AML/CFT). This project is mobilising two long-term experts who are specialists, respectively, in the legal and financial aspects of AML/CFT. The Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA) is the project’s main partner. Its Executive Director, Kimelabalou Aba, stated on its behalf that it was “determined, with support from its technical partners, to assist member countries with the diligent and effective implementation of AML/CFT measures to ensure that criminals do not take advantage of the Covid-19 situation to make their illicit activities prosper.”
 

For further reading: Fight against money laundering and terrorist financing in West Africa: “Political will is crucial”