Organized Crime and Narcotics in the Baltic Sea Region

Research output

Complete citation

Swanström, Niklas L. P., Emin Poljarevic, and Elizabeth Peterson. Organized Crime and Narcotics in the Baltic Sea Region: Issues of National and Regional Security. Conference report. Washington, DC, and Uppsala: Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program, 2005. 88 pp.

Status

Published (2005)

Publication type

Conference and policy report

Overview

This conference report examines organised crime and narcotics trafficking as linked national and regional security challenges around the Baltic Sea. It brings together research and practitioner perspectives from a 2005 Stockholm conference organised by the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute and Silk Road Studies Program. The report maps trafficking routes, criminal-network structures, illicit markets, money laundering, and the institutional difficulties faced by national law-enforcement agencies. It also considers how differences in legislation, investigative practice, administrative capacity, and information sharing create opportunities for organisations operating across borders. The central contribution is regional: criminal markets cannot be understood or countered through isolated national assessments. Effective policy requires comparable threat analysis, sustained operational cooperation, financial intelligence, and coordination among police, customs, prosecutors, and research institutions across the Baltic area.

Research question or central concern

What patterns make organised crime and narcotics trafficking regional security problems in the Baltic Sea area, and what forms of cooperation can address them?

Main argument, approach, and contribution

The report synthesises conference evidence, regional threat assessment, and policy analysis. It argues that differences among national legal and enforcement systems generate exploitable gaps for transnational networks. Its contribution is to frame organised crime as a shared regional-security problem requiring coordinated intelligence, investigation, prosecution, and policy development.

Keywords

organised crime; narcotics; Baltic Sea region; regional security; trafficking; law enforcement; transnational networks