The Dutch and German law enforcement agencies, with the support of Europol, dismantled a criminal group allegedly responsible for several attacks against ATMs with explosives in Germany. As a result, 18 people belonging to a highly specialised criminal group that had settled in the Netherlands were arrested.

These detainees had extensive experience in blowing up ATMs with solid explosives, causing at least €1.5 million worth of damage while looting €1.2 million, of which the police were able to recover a third.

In total, €360,000 in cash and more than €600,000 in cryptocurrencies were seized, along with equipment and vehicles used to commit the robberies.

This major police operation is the result of a comprehensive action plan developed in an operational taskforce formed by Germany, the Netherlands, France and Switzerland, coordinated by Europol, which made it possible to link the ATM attacks and activities related to the intercepted criminal group.

The group of 18 Dutch nationals was based between the Utrecht metropolitan area and Amsterdam and is believed to have attacked ATMs in several German federal states. Investigations have also shown increasingly sophisticated operations by the criminals, who were taking counter-surveillance measures, collaborating with other criminal groups and using various infrastructures when carrying out the robberies.

Police authorities also carried out dozens of house searches, seizing a large amount of equipment used in ATM attacks, including explosives, gasoline cans, license plates, SIM cards, cash counting machines and vehicles, including four cars linked to several robberies.

The offenders followed a pre-established criminal modus operandi. First, they looked for places to hit in various countries, both online and on-site. Basically, the targets they were looking for were easily accessible ATMs with relatively modest security measures and convenient getaway options.

After identifying and scouting potential ATMs to rob, the criminals return during the night and blow up the ATMs with solid explosives. These attacks can often cause severe damage to buildings and their residents.

In recent years, this criminal phenomenon has spread and moved across several European Union countries.

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In recent years, a worrying phenomenon has begun to emerge, consisting of groups calling themselves «paedophile hunters» who, with the intention of protecting children, choose to identify and expose suspected sexual predators through social networks. Despite the nobility of their initial motives, these actions often cross the line of legality and can cause situations of violence and violation of fundamental rights, affecting both the accused and third parties.

These groups employ risky tactics, such as impersonating minors in virtual environments to deceive potential abusers and then publicly confront them. These interventions, often recorded and massively disseminated on the networks, have been criticised by the authorities. It is feared that these practices could interfere with official investigations, compromise the integrity of evidence and even jeopardise public safety.

The consequences of the actions of these groups can be serious and diverse. There have been documented cases of physical assaults, suicide attempts by exposed individuals, and even misidentification with devastating repercussions for innocent individuals. Moreover, the extent to which these confrontations go viral can exacerbate a climate of fear and distrust in society, which could lead to the normalisation of taking the law into one’s own hands.

Catalonia in front of the mirror: prevention and awareness

Although the phenomenon of «paedophile hunters» has not had the same visibility in Catalonia as in other regions, it is crucial to maintain a vigilant attitude. The growing presence of similar content on social networks could inspire local initiatives that, with the lack of the necessary legal knowledge and the lack of coordination with the authorities, could lead to dangerous and counterproductive scenarios.

Faced with this complex reality, the Catalan authorities have the responsibility to consolidate the mechanisms for reporting and investigating sexual crimes against minors, with the aim of ensuring public confidence in the judicial system. At the same time, it is essential to implement education and awareness campaigns to inform the population about the risks inherent in vigilantism and to promote the use of the official channels established for reporting this type of crime.

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Britain’s placid rural landscape has become a worrying scenario: organised crime is proliferating, and farms and isolated areas are emerging as prime targets for increasingly sophisticated criminal gangs. These criminal activities, ranging from the systematic theft of high-value agricultural machinery and cattle rustling to illicit profit from cannabis cultivation, are often exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis and a growing demand for agricultural products.

The theft of tractors, trailers, irrigation systems or agricultural GPS equipment has become commonplace in the UK. Low population density and the inherent difficulty of surveillance in rural environments provide a perfect breeding ground for thieves to act quickly and with almost no repercussions. In Catalonia, although the magnitude of the problem does not reach British figures, there have been occasional episodes of theft on farms and holdings, especially at times of peak activity or when machinery is left unprotected in the fields. These criminal actions generate significant economic losses for farmers and erode security and confidence in rural communities.

Another practice that has grown in the United Kingdom is the looting of agricultural products with a high market value, such as artisan cheeses or purebred meats. Cattle rustlinghas become normalised in some regions, with alarming cases of hundreds of animals being stolen in a single night. In addition, agricultural products are increasingly subject to more elaborate thefts, often involving deception and identity theft.

In Catalonia, where the agri-food sector is a benchmark of excellence and an export driver, the possibility of these products becoming a target for organised groups is a cause for concern. The detection of fraud and impersonation attempts in orders to producers in the Pyrenees and the Ebro region acts as an alarm signal and calls for extreme vigilance.

Rural areas are also used as a hideout for illegal cannabis cultivation, with abandoned buildings converted into clandestine plantations. These activities often involve electricity theft and represent a serious danger to public safety, as well as contributing to the degradation of the rural environment. Catalonia is no stranger to this and the Mossos d’Esquadra have dismantled several industrial warehouses and farmhouses transformed into intensive crops, often linked to international organised crime networks and electricity trafficking.

Faced with this growing reality, the British authorities have intensified their efforts to combat rural crime. Specific police operations, such as Operation Ragwort, have been launched to detect and prevent the theft of agricultural machinery. In parallel, initiatives such as the marking of properties with tracking technology and closer collaboration between security forces and local communities to improve surveillance and response capacity have been promoted.

Lessons learned and future strategies

The British experience underscores the urgency of strengthening rural security through prevention, innovation and community involvement. In this sense, the deployment of advanced video surveillance systems, the installation of GPS devices on agricultural machinery and the creation of networks of farmers connected to police forces are strategies that are already being successfully implemented in several rural areas of Catalonia.

The European RURACTIVE project, promoted by the Generalitat, and the essential task of the local units of the Mossos d’Esquadra are concrete examples of this commitment to proactive community security. However, it is crucial to take a step forward and develop specific protocols to protect the important agricultural heritage, in close collaboration with farmers’ associations and cooperatives.

Rural crime is not a minor problem. It directly attacks food sovereignty, the economic viability of an essential sector and territorial cohesion. For this reason, we must understand that security in the rural world is not a secondary element, but a vital infrastructure, as indispensable as water or roads. And, as the British cases warn us, passivity can have a very high cost.

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Surprisingly valuable despite their harmless appearance, small size and bright colours, LEGO pieces have transcended the category of simple children’s toys to become high-priced merchandise. This revaluation has made these kits a prime target for specialised gangs of thieves in California and elsewhere in the United States. The reason? Their resale potential on the black market can reach five-digit figures.

Certain exclusive LEGO sets, especially those that go out of production after a short time, have become true collector’s items with a constant revaluation. There are notable examples, such as the Spider-Man set from the 2013 Comic-Con, listed at over $15,000, or a Piper aircraft exceeding $13,000. This price escalation has attracted the interest not only of investors, but also of criminal groups.

Last year, several stores in the Bricks & Minifigs chain were victims of thefts exceeding $100,000 in value. Most recently, Alameda County police recovered around 200 stolen sets in a joint operation with local stores such as Crush Comics and Five Little Monkeys, the latter of which was hit by a $7,000 theft of LEGO products. The thieves were bold in their actions, often employing diversionary techniques and leaving establishments with a disconcerting naturalness, as if it were a routine action.

This boom in the LEGO black market highlights a growing reality: toys, like trainers or Pokémon cards, have evolved into products whose economic and symbolic value surpasses their original playful function. This situation has given rise to a parallel ecosystem of investors and speculators, but also to an obvious risk to the safety of businesses and their workers.

According to criminologist Read Hayes, this strong demand from collectors fuels a moral grey area: buyers willing to acquire stolen objects for the sole purpose of completing their collections. This phenomenon is a reminder that organised crime does not always focus on luxury goods or illegal substances but also finds opportunities in such seemingly innocent objects as a small four-centimetre plastic figurine.

From a public safety perspective, it is crucial to emphasise prevention and close collaboration with the local business community to identify suspicious patterns, strengthen surveillance and encourage reporting. At the same time, it is necessary to address, from an educational and cultural perspective, the rationale of consumption and accumulation that can lead to illicit practices.

Because, in the end, as one of the Five Little Monkeys’ managers wryly put it, «it’s just LEGO… it’s worth thinking about: it’s just pieces of plastic».

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Scams known as pig butchering have experienced a significant increase in recent years, becoming a global threat that combines elements of romance and investment fraud. These scams involve criminals establishing trusting relationships with victims and then persuading them to invest in fraudulent schemes, often involving cryptocurrencies. Losses to victims can amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Faced with this alarming situation, Meta – the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – has intensified its efforts to combat these fraudulent practices. According to a report published in November 2024, Meta has removed more than two million accounts linked to scam centres located in Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, United Arab Emirates and the Philippines. These actions are part of a broader strategy to dismantle the criminal organisations responsible for these scams.

What is pig butchering?

The term pig butchering refers to a tactic in which fraudsters build trusting relationships with their victims, often through social networks, dating apps or messaging, with the ultimate goal of convincing them to make investments in fraudulent platforms. These investments are often related to cryptocurrencies, and victims are lured with promises of high returns. Once victims have invested significant sums, the fraudsters disappear with the funds.

In Catalonia, as in the rest of the world, the impact of pig butchering scams is widely known. The Mossos d’Esquadra have detected an increase in complaints related to investment fraud through contacts established through social networks or instant messaging applications. The victims, often people with a vulnerable profile or in a situation of loneliness, are emotionally seduced by fraudsters operating from abroad, but who use digital tools and linguistic impersonations that pass them off as local residents. The digital trail of these crimes often makes investigations more difficult, making it necessary to strengthen international cooperation and technological training of Catalan law enforcement agencies.

Who is behind these scams?

Many of these operations are run by transnational criminal organisations operating from fraud centres in Southeast Asia. These centres often operate with forced labour, where victims of human trafficking are forced to participate in fraudulent activities under threat and coercion. These operations have proliferated in countries such as Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines, taking advantage of the lack of government control and local corruption. 

Meta’s approach to combating these scams

Meta has taken several measures to address this problem:

• Policy against Dangerous Organizations and Individuals (DOI): under this policy, Meta designates these criminal organisations as dangerous, banning them from its platforms and implementing enforcement tools to detect and remove related content.
• Collaboration with the authorities: Meta works closely with law enforcement agencies globally to share information about these criminal operations, facilitating investigations and legal action against those responsible.
• Cooperation with other technology companies: the company collaborates with other companies in the sector to share information on threats and develop joint strategies to combat these scams. For example, Meta worked with OpenAI to detect and disrupt fraudulent activities that used artificial intelligence tools to generate misleading content. 

How to protect yourself from these scams

In this context, it is essential that public institutions and private actors in Catalonia collaborate to promote cybersecurity and citizen prevention. Digital awareness campaigns, training in schools and immediate victim services are key tools for dealing with a threat that combines emotional manipulation with financial engineering. And, at the same time, it is necessary to report and highlight how these international fraud networks operate with impunity thanks to the lack of regulation in the global digital environment.

It is critical that users are aware of the tactics used in pig butchering scams and take steps to protect themselves:

• Be wary of unsolicited messages: if you receive messages from strangers through social media, dating apps, or messaging, be cautious and avoid sharing personal or financial information.
• Verify investment opportunities: before investing money, it is advisable to thoroughly investigate the investment platform or opportunity. Promises of high returns with little risk are worth being wary of.
• Don’t transfer money to people you don’t know personally: avoid sending money or financial information to individuals you’ve only met online.
• Use online security tools: keep your devices updated and use security software to protect against potential threats.

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Europol presented its latest report a few weeks ago, Leveraging legitimacy: How the EU’s most threatening criminal networks abuse legal business structures, which examines how criminal networks fraudulently use legal business structures to strengthen their power and thus expand their criminal operations. This paper builds on Europol’s April 2024 study, Decoding the EU’s Most Threatening Criminal Networks, which identified the abuse of legal business structures as a central feature of these networks. At the request of the Justice and Home Affairs Council of the European Union, Europol conducted a detailed assessment to provide more information on how, why and where this abuse occurs.

The key findings of the Europol report cover the following areas:

• The types of businesses most prone to abuse.
• Organised crime activities enabled by legal businesses.
• Methods used by criminals to exploit these structures.

The report identifies the abuse of legal businesses as a key driver of organised crime. Legal trade structures are integral to laundering criminal proceeds, distorting economic competition, transporting illicit goods and expanding the influence of criminal networks. Cash-intensive businesses are exploited to protect money laundering activities, creating unfair advantages that undermine legitimate businesses.

The findings also highlight how criminal networks use corruption to deepen their control over local communities, fostering economic dependencies that shield illicit activities from law enforcement.

Key findings

• A common threat vector: 86% of the most threatening criminal networks in the EU exploit legal business structures. Criminals use these frameworks to disguise their activities, facilitate money laundering and expand their operations while evading law enforcement.

• Criminal ownership and infiltration: high-level infiltration or outright ownership of legal businesses allows criminal networks to mix legitimate and illicit activities seamlessly. Some companies are set up exclusively as fronts for criminal operations, while others are acquired to serve long-term criminal objectives.

• Cross-border abuse: although abuse of legal business structures is a global phenomenon, the majority of exploited or infiltrated companies used by EU criminal networks (70%) operate within the EU or its neighbouring countries. However, there is a significant portion of EU criminal networks that are involved in legal structures located elsewhere in the world. Legal business structures with criminal infiltration are found in almost 80 countries around the world.

• Insider threats: employees, managers or executives in legitimate locations are increasingly exploited by criminal networks to gain access, knowledge and influence over operations.

• Facilitating multiple crimes: criminally controlled companies often serve several networks simultaneously, enabling various forms of serious and organised crime.

The findings will inform future operational activities but will also serve as input for discussions on administrative and preventive measures.

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Last 25 November marked the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, allowing people to see how EU-funded research is leading the way in developing new tools to prevent and detect domestic violence.

Globally, one in three women will suffer physical or sexual violence in her lifetime, according to the World Health Organization. Gender-based violence against women occurs in many forms, such as intimate partner violence, human trafficking or female genital mutilation.

Despite its prevalence, violence against women remains a very underreported problem. The 2024 survey of the Fundamental Rights Agency of the European Union revealed that the home is not always safe for many women: 1 in 5 women have suffered physical or sexual violence committed by their partner, a relative or another member of their household. The statistics are alarming, and it is crucial to address this problem in a comprehensive and multi-faceted way.

The European Union, through its research funding instrument Horizon Europe, aims to revolutionise the way domestic violence is reported, support victims to seek help and collect evidence, and raise awareness of the problem. By leveraging state-of-the-art technologies and innovative approaches, the EU aims to empower first responders, such as police officers and health professionals, to better support victims of domestic violence.

Domestic violence is often surrounded by stigma and cultural context plays an important role in determining how victims report their experiences. The report of Eurostat from 2022 highlights the different approaches to response in EU countries, with some police forces prioritising domestic violence cases, while others require victims to visit the police station in person, often with limited assistance.

The project Horizon 2020 IMPRODOVA investigated procedures for responding to cases of domestic violence, emphasising the need for specialized training for professionals. The findings of the project were disseminated to law students, police officers and teachers, equipping them with the necessary tools to support victims and report crimes.

Based on the success of IMPRODOVA, the project Horizon Europe IMPROVE aims to empower victims of domestic violence by providing them with information about their rights and how to exercise them. The project focuses on marginalised communities and aims to accelerate political outcomes.

By leveraging AI technology, IMPROVE will develop tools to report, detect and bring justice to victims of domestic violence. A conversational AI chatbot will offer advice, risk assessment and guidance to victims, continuously improving thanks to data input from survivors.

Innovative Solutions to Eliminate Domestic Abuse (ISEDA), funded by Horizon Europe, aims to combine cutting-edge technologies and practices from the social sciences, humanities and experience in the field. ISEDA will develop training programmes for police officers, support victims in reporting domestic violence, and provide evidence and records as judicial evidence. Awareness-raising campaigns and perpetrator programmes will also be launched to improve public understanding and reduce recidivism rates.

Eliminating violence against women requires a collective effort from governments, organisations and individuals. By supporting projects such as IMPRODOVA, IMPROVE and ISEDA, we can work to create a safer and more supportive environment for victims of domestic violence.

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One spring afternoon, two boys celebrating the last day of sixth grade left their New York neighbourhood in search of an adventure. They arrived at a subway train that was stopping at the Church Avenue station in Brooklyn. The boys, Donald and William, climbed onto the roof of one of the cars and were heading north, with the warm air in their faces.

But their escapade was brief. Near the next station, they were caught off guard by an overpass and were thrown onto the tracks. The impact fractured the skulls of the two boys and Donald died that same day. He was 11 years old. William, 12, was taken to Kings County Hospital, unconscious. The year was 1938, but it could have been any year to date.

Andrew Keh and Ana Ley have researched and published a report in The New York Times on the steady drip of deaths in U.S. cities due to what is referred to as “subway surfing”.

Recent news reports often trace the reckless act of climbing on top of a train car, for example in New York City, and blame sensationalist videos and social media, takenby bystanders and the surfers themselves, for rising in false popularity.

In recent years, for reasons that bother public officials, subway surfing has grown and become increasingly deadly. Six people have died trying it this year. Five died in 2023, after the other five who died between 2018 and 2022. The noise of the senseless tragedy has made city officials and concerned observers wonder if anything can be done to remedy it.

The anguish is not new. In 1996, after the death of a 14-year-old boy, Rudolph W. Giuliani, the then mayor of New York made a sad assessment: “There is no way to protect a child who decides to surf on top of a subway car”.

The MTA, the Metropolitan Transport Authority, does not specifically count subway surfing incidents. It reported that 2,556 people had rode outside of train cars this year through September, but the vast majority of these cases, officials said, occurred between cars, not on top. In 2019, by comparison, there were 490.

The city is using drones to try to catch subway surfers in the act. The programme identified 114 offenders the first year, the youngest of whom, according to current New York Mayor Eric Adams, was 9 years old.

Time will tell if the programme achieves lasting results or falls frustratingly short, like many other city initiatives.

In recent years, officials have introduced a public information campaign called “Ride inside, stay alive” in the subways and schools, and have positioned more police officers around hot-spot stations. Public transport leaders have also tried to persuade social media companies to remove thousands of videos of people surfing the subway, although many are still easy to find.

As the problem has persisted, discussions about deterrence have led to a sense of despair. Leroy Comrie, a state senator whose district includes a section of Queens, wondered aloud at a budget hearing last year if the city could “grease the tops of trains» to keep people from getting on.

New York must deal with some hard truths. Physical alterations to the cars, such as open gangway cars and platform barriers, could deter potential offenders. But the city’s subway system is old and immense, with 472 stations and 665 miles of track, making wholesale structural solutions onerous and unlikely.

Officials have found that the rebellious spirit can be difficult to curb. Some teenagers have adapted to the new surveillance and, for example, changed their clothes to create confusion when drones detect them.

Thus, the prominence of subway surfing tends to be calculated in the most macabre way: loss of life. This year, the ages of the deceased were 11, 13, 13, 13, 14 and 15. They died climbing to the top of trains A, F, G, M, 6 and 7. Their accidents occurred in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens.

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A long-running cross-border investigation has enabled the interception of a large-scale criminal drug trafficking network transporting cocaine from South America to the European Union. The operation covered countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia.

The cocaine traffickers under investigation used different sea routes and modus operandi. The criminal network is also connected to a seizure of more than half a tonne of cocaine, with a street value of 50 million euros, in the port of Ploče in southern Croatia towards the end of March 2021. The drug was hidden in a modified cargo container floor. This seizure is one more indication that international drug trafficking organisations are increasingly targeting smaller EU ports.

On the action day – 26 November 2024 – police authorities arrested 11 suspects (2 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1 in Croatia and 8 in Serbia). One of them is a high-value target. During the house searches, the police seized weapons and a large amount of ammunition, as well as several high-end vehicles, watches and more than one million euros in cash. Four other people investigated for belonging to this network are already imprisoned. International arrest warrants have been issued for three other people.

The criminal network allegedly bribes several customs agents to avoid police and customs controls during the logistical phase of export. An allegedly corrupt customs agent was detained during the operation. The other arrests were members of the criminal network who had different roles in the organisation. Some ran some criminal cells, while others either financed activities or coordinated and organised logistics.

One of the suspects, a high-value target detained in Serbia, was already wanted by an EU member state. He was involved in the theft of one million euros as part of the notorious Pink Panther group. Both the robbery and his escape from prison after his conviction date back to the early 2000s.

This investigation is a continuation of an earlier operation against a criminal network connected to this one. These cross-border operations are the result of the evolution of intelligence after the withdrawal in March 2021 of the Sky ECC encrypted communications platform.

In cooperation with France, Belgium and the Netherlands, and with the support of Europol’s Drugs Unit, Serbia was able to identify key targets on its territory and map their criminal activities worldwide. This criminal organisation is believed to be linked to a large-scale criminal network that imports shipments of several tonnes of cocaine from Colombia through Brazil and Ecuador.

The recent withdrawal of three encrypted communication tools used by criminals (EncroChat, Sky ECC and Anom), revealed the prevalence of Balkan criminals in the global cocaine trade and organised crime-related activities.

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The institution «Alliance Against Cybermobbing» has just presented a study in Germany[1]. The study consists of online surveys conducted between May and July 2024 with 637 teachers, 1061 parents and 4213 pupils throughout Germany.

The results show that bullying of girls and young women in cyberspace continues to increase. Some 18.5% of students between 7 and 20 years of age report having suffered from it, which in absolute numbers represents more than two million schoolchildren. Previous studies had detected 16.7% in 2022 and 12.7% in 2017. Educational institutions and teachers are totally overwhelmed by the problem.

The consequences of this bullying are noticeable both psychologically and physically. Sufferers report headaches or stomach aches, anxiety, a sinking feeling or depression. Fifty-seven percent of the victims say they are hurt, 43% react with anger and almost a third say they are anxious. Thirteen percent report having resorted to alcohol, pills or drugs and 26% admit to having suicidal thoughts.

School-based prevention has proven to be effective. Those centres that implement this type of measures have fewer cases. Although there is some activity in this direction (55% say that there is some preventive activity in their centre, 7% more than in the last survey), victim support remains an unresolved issue (respondents who say that it exists have decreased by 9% – from 37% to 28% – since the last study).

Parents acknowledge their responsibility, but say they are overwhelmed by the problem. The institution promoting the study has published a mechanism to advise parents based on the knowledge of eight experts in the field.

There are four lines of prevention proposed by the Alliance Against Cybermobbing:

• It is necessary to maintain and intensify the prevention work carried out up to now and to start it in primary schools. Children should be aware of the environment they will encounter on the Internet. It is essential to improve the training of teachers in this area, receiving support from experts outside the centre.
• Parents should get on the Internet and networks with their children as soon as their children can begin to access them. It is important that they receive support from the municipalities and schools (with specific programs and activities).
• Counselling and support centres should be provided for victims, as well as anonymous «hot lines» to which they can turn for support.
• Politics should also contribute by passing a law to combat cyberbullying, as has existed in Austria since 2016. It should also be provided with the necessary resources for effective law enforcement (judges, magistrates and police).

[1] Vid. PM-Cybermobbing-Studie-2024-fin.pdf (buendnis-gegen-cybermobbing.de)

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