Americas

Home page

Americas

Organized crime generates billions of dollar, hurts millions of people: UN anti-crime chief

15 October 2012 23:16 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The chief of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on Monday said that transitional organized crime generates billions of dollars and hurts millions of people every year, calling for enhanced international cooperation to fight sophisticated crime, APA rweports quoting Xinhua.

"Transnational organized crime generates 870 billion (U.S.) dollars and affects millions of people every year," UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said at a daily news briefing here, quoting the executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Yury Fedotov, as saying on Monday at the sixth session of the conference of parties to the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.

"He said it was important to recognize that crime is smart, sophisticated and largely opportunistic, and that it is capable of moving when successfully challenged," Nesirky said.

Timely strategic activities is needed and "we must take lessons and create practical policies," Fedotov said at the conference held in Vienna, Austria.

The conference, which runs from Oct. 15-19, is attended by some 800 participants, reports said.

Fedotov called on the international community to be creative and proactive in the exchange of ideas and information on what is working in the global fight against drugs and crime.