Results

Hitting organised crime where it does business

May 2026. In the first week of May 2026, nineteen European countries ran the first EMPACT Action Days dedicated to prevention and the “administrative approach”. Instead of building a criminal case, this approach uses ordinary regulatory powers — inspections, licences, permits, fines — to push criminal networks out of the legitimate economy they depend on.

Nine countries carried out more than 30 coordinated operations covering over 8.000 individual activities, with ten more countries observing. Inspectors targeted the sectors where criminal networks hide most easily: restaurants and hotels, the car trade, construction, retail, healthcare, transport, precious metals and public procurement.

The preliminary results:

• More than 4.426 businesses and industrial sites inspected
• More than 37.038 people checked, leading to the identification of 74 illegal workers and action against 27 members of an organised crime group
• More than 16.884 vehicles inspected
• 749 administrative fines issued, worth at least €496.000

Alongside police and customs, the operation involved tax authorities, health and food safety inspectors, labour inspectorates, consumer protection bodies, immigration services and local government. That is the multidisciplinary approach in action: not one door being kicked in, but every legitimate lever being pulled at once.

Dismantling a human trafficking network

A network exploiting Chinese victims in forced prostitution operated across several European countries — recruiting in one, moving victims through others, taking the profits in another. No single national investigation could see the whole picture.

Under EMPACT, the authorities involved worked as one investigation. The network was dismantled, and its victims were identified and taken out of exploitation.