Organised Crime-Related Homicides Kill 95,000 People Annually, UNODC

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has said organised crime-related homicides claim about 95,000 lives globally every year, with criminal groups increasingly expanding their activities across drugs, firearms, cybercrime, human trafficking and other illicit markets.

In a research brief published on its website, the UNODC said the figure, covering the period between 2000 and 2023, is roughly comparable to the annual number of deaths caused by armed conflicts worldwide.

The agency said organised crime groups operate in environments ranging from local communities and sub-national regions to the high seas and warzones, causing extensive harm beyond direct violence.

According to the UNODC, one in every five intentional homicides globally is linked to organised criminal groups, while such killings account for about half of all intentional homicides in the Americas.

The agency said the consequences of organised crime also include drug-related deaths, attacks on journalists and community leaders, corruption and the weakening of government institutions and democratic processes.

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“Meanwhile, the billions of dollars generated by OCGs give them enormous financial leverage over State institutions, enabling them to infiltrate the government and corrupt officials,” the UNODC said.

It added that illicit economies could also distort legitimate economic activity, discourage investment and sustainable growth, while diverting public funds that could otherwise be directed towards health, education and infrastructure.

On how criminal groups establish control, the UNODC identified “criminal governance” as one of the major threats posed by organised crime.

It described criminal governance as the ability of organised criminal groups to establish and enforce alternative rules to those of the state.

According to the agency, criminal groups use coercion, intimidation, corruption, selective provision of services and market manipulation to establish such control.

The UNODC explained that communities can also end up tacitly accepting criminal governance when groups provide jobs and basic services, including regulating petty crime.

“By threatening or using violence, for example, OCGs coerce fearful communities or authorities to cooperate,” the agency said.

The UNODC said most organised crime revenue globally comes from the illicit production and trafficking of goods or people, including drugs, firearms, migrants, wildlife, natural resources, cultural property, falsified medicines and fuel.

It described drug trafficking as the financial backbone of most transnational organised criminal groups, with the global illicit drug trade estimated to generate hundreds of billions of dollars annually.

The agency said illicit financial flows linked to opiate and methamphetamine trafficking along the Balkan route were estimated at between $3.4 billion and $6.9 billion annually between 2019 and 2022.

The UNODC also highlighted the growing role of cybercrime, noting that financial losses from online scams targeting victims in East and Southeast Asia alone were estimated at between $18 billion and $37 billion in 2023.

The agency said technological advances had enabled criminal groups to target victims across borders and conduct online extortion, fraud and scams on an industrial scale.

“Victims no longer need to be in the same physical space as perpetrators, who can now operate across borders and in multiple locations at the same time,” it said.

According to the UNODC, technology has not only increased the scale and speed of traditional crimes but has also created new forms of cyber-dependent crime, including cyberfraud, hacking and malware attacks.

The research brief recommended several measures to tackle organised crime, including joint threat assessments, stronger information sharing across sectors, disruption of illicit financial flows and the confiscation or recovery of criminal proceeds.

The UNODC said these measures are among the strategic priorities required to counter the growing reach and influence of transnational organised crime.