At the nexus of trafficking criminal activities: Understanding-Disrupting-Exposing

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Abstract

Organised crime has been an evolving threat in Europe and worldwide, with criminal networks engaged in multiple and diverse criminal activities. The proposed roundtable brings together experts from four EU-funded projects to discuss their targeted approaches to countering specific forms of organised crime surrounding trafficking activities: Trafficking in Human Beings, Drugs Trafficking, Waste Trafficking, and Trafficking of Cultural Goods.
- The VANGUARD project aims to strengthen the fight against Trafficking in Human Beings (THB) through advanced AI-powered technological solutions, understanding, awareness raising, and training, thus providing an improved THB intelligence picture, enabling the disruption of the trafficking chain (online and offline) at an early stage, while also addressing the culture of impunity.
- The ARIEN project aims to create, through multi-disciplinary research and the development of technical solutions, an investigative and intelligence framework for fighting the entire illegal Drugs Trafficking chain in the EU, using AI techniques to strengthen investigative activities against relevant criminal groups.
- The PERIVALLON project tackles organised environmental crime, including Waste Trafficking, aiming to provide an improved and comprehensive intelligence picture, thus enhancing detection and prevention strategies against environmental crime networks, by leveraging the latest advancements in AI in the fields of computer vision and multimodal analytics.
- The RITHMS project aims to define a replicable strategy to counter the challenges in addressing the illicit Trafficking of Cultural Goods and investigate the mechanisms underpinning it, including its connection with organised crime, through mapping trafficking routes, analysing illicit networks, and developing counter-strategies.
The experts invited in the roundtable will present the findings of the research performed in each project and also delve into a well-rounded discussion, seeking to analyse the connection between diverse criminal activities, outline AI-based solutions, and highlight collaborative multi-agency efforts as key strategies for combatting organised crime and for enhancing security across Europe

Subtopic

• Topic 2: Types of Offending / Organized Crime (Organized Crime WG)

Chair

• Theodora Tsikrika, Information Technologies Institute, CERTH, Greece

Discussants

• Carlotta Carbone, Transcrime - Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore

• Ernesto La Mattina, Engineering Ingegneria Informatica SpA, Italy

• Sandra Balbierz, Center of Excellence for Police and Security Research, Germany

• Patricia Faraldo-Cabana, Universidade da Coruña