Abstract
The 2024 Europol report highlights a troubling increase in criminal organizations that pose a significant threat to internal security within the European Union. These groups, implicated in illegal market activities, are attracting intense scrutiny due to a disturbing rise in violent incidents. While such violence has typically been confined to conflicts among organized crime members, it’s now spilling into broader society, targeting journalists and public figures as well. Recent events underscore this escalating crisis: drug-related killings of youths in Marseille, the shocking discovery of a torture chamber hidden in a Dutch forest, and the tragic deaths of Spanish police officers during a maritime chase in Barbate. In light of these incidents, countries like Belgium and the Netherlands - key transit hubs for South American cocaine - have drawn alarm as media outlets increasingly label them as “narcostates.”