Seek and you shall find
«Who seeks shall find; who sits with folded hands or sleeps is blind.» So said the Greek poet Sophocles. 2,500 years later, this is the mantra in the fight against organised crime. How a situation report is created.
Switzerland, in the 1970s. Rumour has it that the mafia is active in Switzerland – no one knows for sure. There is a lack of awareness and no obvious leads. It takes more than 10 years before suspicions become hard evidence. How deeply have these structures penetrated Swiss society? This question is the beginning of an ongoing information cycle that lays the foundations for the current situation.
The information cycle
The information cycle is an important process in criminal analysis. Analysts collect information, evaluate it, process it into products and pass it on. The cycle is a continuous process involving a variety of partners. It begins with the collection of information from various sources, such as police information exchanges, witness statements or court judgments. Analysts look for patterns and correlations in the information. They pass their conclusions on to decision-makers.
In the 1990s, answers to these questions were slow in coming. But then the era of international cooperation began. Investigators and analysts dug deeper, the network of information sources and partners grew. Reports from immigration and police authorities, court judgments from Italy, findings from Europol and INTERPOL – every report, every witness statement and every court judgment sharpened the picture: the mafias were not just a problem in Italy, they were also here, woven into the social and economic fabric of Switzerland. What new threats had emerged and how could Switzerland take more effective action against them? Every piece of information, every new lead was fed into the ongoing investigation cycle and Switzerland began to understand the network of organised crime. New findings triggered new questions and new information cycles.
Networked investigations
Sharing information and cooperating with partners – this is how fedpol analysts continuously sharpen their picture of the situation. They specialise in specific topics and exchange information: findings they make about Italian organised crime can provide the specialists with another piece of the puzzle in their investigations. Decision-makers can set strategic priorities and investigative teams can refocus their investigations.
The new millennium marked a turning point. New technologies and globalisation – fedpol began making use of both in its analyses. The development reached its temporary peak in 2021 when the Dutch, Belgian and French police took action against the encrypted messaging service, Sky ECC. What had been considered an opaque fortress of encrypted messaging suddenly became a source of intelligence. What did the communication patterns reveal about the dirty tricks of the criminal networks? The analysts at fedpol meticulously evaluated the messages of serious criminals, providing a deep insight into the abysses of organised crime in our country.
Technological progress in criminal analysis
The decryption of the encrypted messaging service, Sky ECC, illustrates the impact of technological advances on crime analysis. Such breakthroughs are transforming data collection and analysis, which in turn leads to a deeper understanding of criminal networks and allows the police to target the weaknesses in organised crime.
Sky ECC revealed what analysts and investigators had long suspected, that organised crime in Switzerland goes far beyond the Italian mafias. The ongoing analysis cycles, supported by advanced data analytics, revealed trends and patterns and helped analysts to produce a new situation report for Switzerland. The Italian mafias: they specialise in drug trafficking and money laundering, using Switzerland as an operational base, strategic transit point and retreat. The Dutch-Belgian ‹Mocro Mafia›: it orchestrates ATM blasts, drug trafficking and money laundering on a grand scale. Southeast European networks; they dominate the cocaine trade. Russian organised crime: it covers white-collar crime and money laundering, and is often linked to the political and financial influence of oligarchs. Nigerian brotherhoods such as the ‹Black Axe›: they are known for their complex transnational operations in drug trafficking and fraud. Turkish groups: they are involved in drug trafficking, illegal gambling and money laundering.
They are all operating on Swiss soil.
fedpol’s policing policy
fedpol policing policy has eight focus areas:
- Terrorism and violent extremism
- Organised crime
- Trafficking in narcotics
- Human trafficking / human smuggling
- Cybercrime and digital crime
- Financial and economic crime
- Security of persons and buildings
- Security of civil aviation
fedpol maintains detailed situation reports for each of these focus areas. These reports are essential for setting the right strategic priorities and deploying operational resources effectively.
As the situation becomes clearer, the outlook gets more bleak. What the analysts see today is only part of the bigger and more precise picture of what they will see tomorrow.
«As Sophocles said quite rightly said 2,500 years ago: ‹Who seeks shall find; who sits with folded hands or sleeps is blind!› This guiding principle remains at the heart of the fight against organised crime: a constant reminder that attention and meticulous processes are the key to uncovering the shadow world. What new findings will the future bring, and how will we respond?»
Stéphane, crime analyst
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