Europol Warns Gangs Recruit Children at £10 Billion Scale for Drugs and Cybercrime
Updated
Updated · streamlinefeed.co.ke · Jun 12
Europol Warns Gangs Recruit Children at £10 Billion Scale for Drugs and Cybercrime
3 articles · Updated · streamlinefeed.co.ke · Jun 12
Summary
Europol said organized crime groups are recruiting minors on an unprecedented industrial scale across Europe, using them in drug trafficking, cyber fraud and other high-risk crimes.
£10 billion in European cocaine demand is helping drive the pipeline, with networks in hubs such as Paris, Brussels and Antwerp targeting unaccompanied migrant children and marginalized local youth.
Children are used as dealers, couriers, enforcers and even assassins because gangs can exploit juvenile justice systems, reducing adult leaders’ legal exposure while recycling minors through rapid release.
Europol’s 2026 cybercrime assessment said the same model now extends online, where teenagers are drawn or coerced into phishing, crypto-laundering and blackmail through scam compounds and cybercrime-as-a-service platforms.
French data shows more than 60% of drug offenders are 15 to 25, underscoring Europol’s warning that policing alone will not stop a trafficking system treating exploited children as disposable labor.