The Report prepared by UNICRI on "Organized Crime and the Legal Economy" has been presented and discussed today in Naples during a workshop organized by UNICRI, the United States Department of State and the Municipality of Naples.
The creation of the guidelines has been financially supported by the CRT Foundation. It was greatly influenced by the analysis that UNICRI conducted in its report entitled Counterfeiting: a global spread, a global threat, first published in 2007.
The publication focuses on two distinct aspects of the counterfeiting problem and both of them play a pivotal role in addressing the complex nature of counterfeiting:
The first report Counterfeiting, a global spread, a global threat, published by UNICRI in 2007, provides a global assessment of organized criminal involvement in counterfeiting. It presents a general overview of counterfeiting, supported by data and statistics, and contains an analysis of the consequences of the crime for human society. It highlights its economic and social impacts and the risks that certain counterfeit goods may cause to consumers’ health and safety.
Acting upon a request by the Italian Ministry of Economic Development, more specifically the Directorate General for the fight against counterfeiting, UNICRI, in partnership with the Italian Guardia di Finanza (Financial Police), Direzione Nazionale Antimafia (National Antimafia Bureau), Procura di Napoli (Naples' Prosecutor Office) and Europol, conducted a collection of Italian cases and data on counterfeiting.
The SAVEmed (Microstructure secured and self-verifying medicines) project is funded by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7). The various partners involved possess expertise in pharmaceutical production, packaging and anti-counterfeiting strategies.
Counterfeit pharmaceuticals are among the counterfeit products with the greatest potential of harm for consumers’ health. However, for such a dangerous threat, the topic has received a negligible amount of attention from the media and the general public.
Counterfeit medicines have become a highly profitable criminal industry run by transnational criminal organizations. The issue has affected international communities in terms of growth, industrial and commercial turnover, social development, improvement of people’s living conditions, and human security.
UNICRI researches and writes on specific counterfeit product categories, focusing on the impact on consumers’ health and safety and on organized crime involvement. Counterfeit medicines are among the counterfeit products with the greatest potential for harming the health of consumers. As for many other criminal activities, also in the case of counterfeit medicines reliable estimates are extremely hard to be obtained. Nonetheless, according to the WHO counterfeit medicines represent approximately 10 per cent of the entire amount of medicines worldwide.
UNICRI’s programme on Counterfeiting is based on a long tradition of research in matters of organized crime. Counterfeiting is an important part of the work of the Institute due to the growing interest of criminal organizations in this area.
The issue of cybercrime has been a focus of UNICRI since 2004, and after years of experience, UNICRI now possesses the skills and know-how to analyze trends concerning cybercrime in its many forms. UNICRI is supported by an extensive, specialized and trusted contact network consisting of private enterprises, international organizations and NGOs, academic institutions, law enforcement bodies, governmental bodies, and other UN agencies.
A sampling of the Emerging Crimes Unit's past activities with respect to cybersecurity and technology misuse can be found below: