The Internet has become a major tool in European organised crime, which uses it for drugs and human trafficking and money laundering as well as cybercrime, Europol's top official said Wednesday.
There has been a marked increase over the last two years in criminal groups turning to the Web to commit crimes regarded as "more traditional" rather than purely computer-based crime, Europol director Rob Wainwright said.
"Using the Internet has become much more mainstream," Wainwright said at the release of the policing body's bi-annual organised crime threat assessment.
The Report said, " "In addition to the high-tech crimes of cybercrime -- payment card fraud, the distribution of child abuse material and audio visual piracy -- extensive use of the Internet now also underpins illicit drug synthesis, extraction and distribution."
The Web was also extensively used to recruit human trafficking victims, facilitate illegal immigration, supply counterfeit commodities and traffick in endangered species, the report said.
Organised crime groups derived more than 1.5 billion euros from payment card fraud in the EU, the report estimated.
The financial crisis and the Financial constraints it caused had made people "more likely to be recruited by criminal groups for example drug couriers or 'money mules'."
The report, which will go to justice and home affairs ministries around the EU, will help governments set crime-fighting priorities for the next two years, Wainwright said.
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