The World Drug Report, published every year by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, aims to provide an accurate, scientific and impartial overview of drug trends and patterns around the world.

In this year’s volume on Contemporary issues on drugs, the chapter on “Drug trafficking and organized crime” draws on the framework developed by Federico Varese and his team in the ERC-funded CrimGov project.

This chapter explores the relevance of drug trafficking for organized criminal groups and the different organizational structures of groups that define their strengths and weaknesses.

“Drug trafficking is an important income-generating activity for organised criminal groups, with estimated annual global retail sales in the hundreds of billions of dollars. In addition to the monetary value of drug trafficking, violence and corruption, which are typical hallmarks of organized crime, destabilize State institutions and society.” (2025 World Drug Report)

However, “organised crime” is an umbrella term that covers different types of organisations. This is what Federico Varese seeks to unpack in his research. The report differentiates between governance-focused and trade-focused groups, a distinction introduced by Federico Varese, which is central to the CrimGov research project.

“Organized crime groups that engage in drug trafficking differ greatly in terms of their structure, make-up and goals, with groups generally appearing to be oriented towards trade or towards governance. Those oriented towards trade are generally more agile and prioritize market transactions and profit maximization, whereas those oriented towards governance are found to be more hierarchical and seek to control territories, or the markets and people within them.” (2025 World Drug Report)

The report acknowledges the contribution of Federico Varese, a number of whose publications are cited as references.

This distinction is crucial because group structure is a key factor for combating drug trafficking, the report emphasises.

“Depending on the internal organizational structure, context and activities of drug trafficking networks, it is possible to identify strengths and weaknesses that can make law enforcement operations against them more effective.” (2025 World Drug Report)

More about the research of Federico Varese

• Federico Varese's webpage
• Website of the CrimGov project
• Unpacking organised crime, interview, August 2024
• Federico Varese: "Mafias: A Form of States?", video interview, April 2023