Code of playing “growth role” in crime in Western Balkan countries: ngo

Research into the Global Initiative on Organized Crime across Borders (GI-TOC) shows that criminals are increasing cryptocurrency in Western Balkan countries such as Albania and Serbia.

Written in one of two new risk bulletins this month, the Geneva-based NGO found that the seizure of illegally procured encryption remains a major challenge for the Balkans in their homes in Albania, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia.

The bulletin explained that illegal use of crypto has grown in parallel with more legitimate uses, as local trading volumes are somewhere between $25 billion and $30 billion.

In this context, Montenegro became the main European node for using crypto in the darknet market, but used crypto to wash away drug trafficking proceeds in Albania and Serbia, according to early December GI-TOC bulletin reports.

Sasa Jordjevic, senior analyst for the West Vulcans at Gi-Toc, Decryption The cryptocurrency is “playing a growing role in criminal conduct in the Western Balkan countries,” and there is also growing fraud and illegal use of encryption in the region.

“Drug trafficking groups use Crypto to move and hide profits,” he said. “Suspicious transactions related to criminal networks in the Western Balkan countries are worth tens of millions of euros, often routed through crypto wallets and reinvested in legal businesses.”

Djordjevic also states that such patterns tend to reflect known cocaine trafficking routes from Latin America to Europe, but before GI-TOC closes in 2022, it observes the relationship between criminal actors in the Western Balkan countries and DarkNet markets such as Hydra.

Growing problems

The latest GI-TOC bulletin suggests that illegal use will continue to grow in the region, given local governments struggle to keep up with such use in terms of regulation, technical expertise and cross-border cooperation.

“Currently, only three out of six countries have adopted digital assets laws, one of which has not yet be implemented,” explained Djordjevic.

Jordjevic is the three countries mentioned here: Albania, Serbia and Kosovo, the latter introducing cryptocurrency laws in November, but the bylaws required for implementation have not yet been adopted.

“Although the EU’s MICA regulations provide a path to stronger surveillance, the West Balkans are not yet part of the EU, so full and consistent implementation remains difficult across the region,” he added. “Until regulatory and enforcement capabilities are strengthened, the area will remain vulnerable to illegal cryptographic activity.”

As mentioned above, the West Vulcans only have three documented cases of code attacks, but all of these have occurred in the past few years.

These latest were related to the seizure of assets belonging to the Albanian Crime Syndicate, which was the target of the operation between November 2024 and January 2025.

In conjunction with the unidentified stubcoin operator and major crypto exchanges, forces from Albania, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Europole seized gang cash, bank accounts and other assets, including hardware wallets containing $10 million in cryptocurrency.

Do a catch up

However, there are few such cases yet. And with Djordjevic and Gi-Toc, things won’t improve until local authorities keep up with the pace of change.

This means that not only will the government need to “adopt and enforce clear regulations” to track and seize illegal codes, but law enforcement must provide specialized training to “invest in advanced blockchain tools.”

“The implementation of FATF recommendations and EU regulations on cryptography remains important, especially for countries that were previously on the FATF grey list,” Djordjevic said, adding that close cooperation with Europol, Interpol and other national institutions is also required.