Organized crime in Portugal

Portugal became a destination for several thousand emigrants from diverse locations around the globe (particularly Eastern Europe, Brazil and the former Portuguese territories in Africa - the PALOP countries). With the development and modernisation of the economy within the globalisation process, corporate crime, financial crime, and corruption are increasingly important issues.[16]
According to the World Economic Forum's 2019 Global Competitiveness Report, Portugal ranked 9th best out of 141 countries for level of costs imposed on businesses by organised crime.[17] According to the 2021 Global Organized Crime Index, Portugal received a score of 4.55 for criminality, and 6.46 for resilience, ranking 117th, and 29th out of 193 countries globally, 24th, and 21st out of 44 countries in Europe, and 5th, and 2nd out of 8 countries in Southern Europe.[18]
The Galician clans, particularly the Los Charlines clan, have been major players in illicit drug trafficking, primarily involved in smuggling cocaine and hashish from Colombia and Morocco into Portugal via sea routes since the 1970s.[19][20]
Various groups of the Italian Mafia have been known to be active throughout Portugal since at least the 1980s. The Camorra is known to be active in Porto where it is involved in the business of fake designer fashion merchandise. Calabrian organised crime group 'Ndrangheta has been involved in drug trafficking, as well as money laundering specifically through the tourism sector.[21]
Organised crime groups from former Soviet states have been increasingly active in the Iberian Peninsula since the 1990s, especially after the fall of the USSR.[22] In 2016, members of a Russian criminal gang led by Alexander Tolstikov, with ties to the Russian mafia, were caught running a money laundering operation using the Portuguese football club U.D. Leiria.[23][24] By 2019, members of the Georgian mafia had committed over 370 burglaries throughout Portugal.[25] 

In 2021, two members of the Montenegrin Kavač clan, which is responsible for money laundering, extortion, and smuggling cocaine from South America into Europe, were arrested in Portugal after living and operating discreetly in the country for nearly one year.[26]
Since the 2000s, Mexican drug cartels including Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán's Sinaloa Cartel, Los Zetas, and the Gulf Cartel, have been establishing their presence in Portugal. Of these three, the Sinaloa cartel has evolved to become the one with the most dominant presence in the country, where it is involved in drug trafficking and money laundering. The group's primary modus operandi is smuggling cocaine of Colombian origin into Portugal, with the aid of corrupt officials and businessmen; The smuggling operation is overseen by Joaquín Guzmán's two sons Iván Archivaldo, and Jesús Alfredo. 

Once in Portugal, only a small amount of the smuggled cocaine remains in the country; The majority is transferred to partners with whom the Sinaloa Cartel has alliances, including Portuguese, Brazilian and Russian drug traffickers, who then distribute the drugs throughout the rest of Europe to command higher prices.[20]
In the 2010s the presence of Brazilian organised crime group First Capital Command (abbreviation "PCC"; Portuguese; Primeiro Comando da Capital) in Portugal was confirmed for the first time by Portuguese authorities.[27][28] A federal report by the Brazilian government revealed that there were at least 43 members of the group involved in drug trafficking known to be operating in Portugal, the highest number of any country in Europe.[29] First Capital Command has had a working relationship with 'Ndrangheta since the 1980s to export drugs from Brazil to Europe, where 'Ndrangheta then takes over trafficking and distribution operations throughout the continent.[30]