REMARK: From 'The Advanced Course of Interpretation', this article introduces different types of europe crime and why some people reluctant to solve the problem, refering to Test One Reading Four, Page-306.

German police were certain that high-value cars were disappearing from German streets and heading east. To prove their point they planted a dozen BMWs and Mercedes in city areas prone to car theft: Within weeks ten of the cars appeared on the Polish border with new, false plates.

The cars were heading for sale in the new East European states, the Baltic republics, Russia and even further afield. Stolen cars are now being shipped from Romania and Bulgaria to the Middle and Far East. Others have been forwarded to the United States. Sometimes the owners help the thieves by driving into Eastern Europe and selling them to the gangs. Once back in the West they say they have been stolen and claim the insurance.

International car theft and drug dealing are just two of the symptoms of the spread of organized crime across Europe. In the 1990s gangs as disparate as the Mafia, the Triads and the Chechens have been boosted by the easing of European border controls and the collapse of the old East European regimes. There are forecasts that Triad gangs will increase their European operations as they abandon Hong Kong. Immigrant Turkish groups could grow, bolstered by an upsurge om heroin use.

Even before border controls were eased the Italians publicly warned that the Mafia could exploit the relaxation on financial controls. Scotland Yard now believes the Mafia is among organized crime groups using Londons stable financial markets as the hub of money laundering operations and fraud. The Germans believe that pressure in Italy on the Mafia has forced its leaders to retreat and regroup in Germany, France and the Benclux countries.

Cosa Nostra is also reported to have struck up deals with East European groups. The East offers new markets and more access points into the West. Poland is now said to be a larger producer of amphetamines than The Netherlands and the Asian areas of the former Soviet Union have the potential for huge cannabis and opium poppy harvests.

German and Austrian investigators have found nuclear materials coming west and many countries believe that weapons, including large calibre guns from the former Red Army, are being smuggled out. Russian prostitutes have proved irresistible to organized crime. The Mafia has been traced to European frauds involving olive and lemon juice production. Diverted cargos of duty-free cigaerettes have swamped markets in Spain and Italy. Other cigarettes come across the border from Poland into Germany.

As a British police briefing paper noted last year no country has yet neutralized the international gangs which remain “an ingredient of global ungovernability.”