Blockchain Technology Aids Human Traffickers, Says Europol Director

Rob Wainwright, Europol director who is about to take the position of senior cyber partner at professional services giant Deloitte, recently aired his view about modern technology which includes  cryptocurrencies and blockchain saying that it support human traffickers.

Rob Wainwright, who will soon leave the department of director of Europol, told Reuters that modern technologies such as online messaging apps, blockchain, and cryptocurrencies are contributing to favorable conditions for slavery across the European continent. On the other hand, the same advanced technologies are helping the agency fight traffickers.

Recent technological innovations have allowed traffickers to hunt for more potential victims, grow their networks, and hide their crimes more successfully. However, law enforcement agencies are using technologies to follow digital traces and create more relevant investigative patterns.

As of today, criminals generate about $150 billion a year in trade from human trafficking, enslaving approximately 40 million individuals across the world.

Rob, who has led Europol for the past nine years, told Thomson Reuters Foundation that “technology has lowered the bar of entry to the criminal world, which has had an expansive effect on the growth of modern slavery.”

“Our challenge is that technology is taking slavery into a darker corner of the world where law enforcement techniques and capabilities are not as strong as they are offline,” he added.

Wainwright stressed that the anonymous nature of technologies like cryptocurrencies, blockchain, and several messaging services makes it difficult for the law enforcement agencies to fight traffickers.

“According to some judicial standards, police can intercept telephone calls but not WhatsApp calls. There is an imbalance in our criminal justice system,” he noted with regret.

Still, there is another side to the coin.

“While technology is abused in a serious way, it is also a friend and fantastic tool for law enforcement,” he said.

Europol, the short name for the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, is a European Union entity that connects about 1,000 law enforcement agencies from 40 countries. It applies modern technologies such as algorithms, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning to get better insight into criminal networks.

In 2017, the agency recorded 14% growth in cross-border slavery and trafficking cases.

In February, Wainwright said that three to four billion British pounds out of about 100 billion in illegal money are laundered via cryptocurrencies.