Pubdate: Mon, 13 Oct 1997 Source: reuters BRUSSELS, Belgium (Reuters) International organized crime is thriving in Belgium, the country's first report on the subject said Monday, citing among others Italian mafia, Russian and Turkish gangs, Chinese triads and Colombian drug cartels. Onethird of the criminals so far investigated are Belgian, it said. Drug running is the main activity, followed by money laundering and economic crime, Justice Minister Stefaan De Clerck told a news conference to outline the report. ``This is the first time such a report has been compiled in Belgium,'' he said, noting that the gendarmerie, judicial police and the security services had all contributed information. ``The danger behind organized crime is its ability to protect itself from official investigations by mixing together legal and illegal structures which make detection much more difficult,'' De Clerck added. The report covers criminal investigations in Belgium in 1996. In that year 162 inquiries were conducted into criminal organizations, more than half of which were found to have a clear command structure, with people over 30 years old tending to be in positions of power. Of the 1,561 suspects investigated, onethird were Belgian, with another 40 percent consisting of Italians, Dutch, Turks, French, Moroccans, Russians, Yugoslavs, Germans and Romanians. About 40 of the gangs had a distinctive ethnic background with links to the home country. These included the Italian mafia, Turkish criminal organizations, Russian organised crime, three Colombian cartels and three Chinese triads, the report said. About half of the gangs investigated were involved in drug trafficking, just over a third were involved in money laundering and one fifth were conducting economic crimes, an area which the report said was steadily rising. The report noted that investigations into the organizations involved in economic crime was frequently hampered by a lack of resources. The majority of the gangs investigated made use of legal financial structures and frequently hid behind seemingly solid citizens. Use of violence or other forms of intimidation was found to be widespread, and the investigators probed 46 cases of possible pressure on people in positions of influence such as police and magistrates, the report said. It said Belgium was a prime hub for organized crime, citing the large number of stolen Belgian identity papers floating around the world, rising links with gangs in eastern Europe and the growing role of Belgian ports in drug running. It noted the big part played by Belgian gangs in the illegal hormones traffic in Europe, the presence of organized crime in waste treatment, the growing trade in illegal arms from eastern Europe, the links to the Dutch drugs trade and the increasingly sophisticated and international nature of the stolen car trade. The report said investigators had identified Colombian cartels which were expanding their drugs trade globally but particularly through Belgium, Turkish gangs involved in the international trade in heroin, Russian gangs active in money laundering in Belgium and Pakistani slave trading gangs. It said that one point of particular concern in Belgium was the growing number of biker gangs in which crime organizations had taken root and were developing. De Clerck said the report, to be issued annually, would be used as a base for developing new laws, improving existing ones and would be a useful weapon in the fight against organized crime.