SWISS SEE GROWING THREAT VIA INTERNET CRIME, MAFIA

According to a police report filed on Thrusday, internet crime, and mafia groups in border areas, and human trafficking from Eastern Europe are growing threats to Switzerland. Further, the report also cited that criminals are increasingly turning to the Internet-sharing encrypted data is difficult to crack which is a tool to plan crimes irrespective of national borders.

According to the police, mafia groups are active in Switzerland and especially near borders with Italy, France and Germany. Further, due to lot of pressure exerted by the Italian authorities, operations such as money laundering are moving to Switzerland.

Further, mafia groups are trying to build partnerships with financial and banking experts to strengthen their hold in Switzerland. One of the main characteristic of the groups pointed out by the report was that, “Their offenses are committed with the utmost discretion and are, therefore, less visible to the general public than other forms of organized crime, such as drug trafficking on the streets or large—scale burglaries,”

Several arrests were carried out by the Swiss police in order to curb organized crimes and also at the request of the other countries. Some of them were extradited to Italy where they received prison terms.

“Human trafficking from Eastern Europe continues to expand during the year” was also stated in the report with respect to protection of victims and witnesses to help combat the crime.

Report by Sumit