Radicalisaiton and terrorism are among the most pressing security concerns facing Europe. At the same time, intersections and convergence between crime on the one hand and terrorism on the other has the potential to amplify security risks. The current report lays the foundation for an in-depth study aiming to shed more light on the crime-terror nexus across eleven European Union countries. Preliminary results indicate that there is significant variety among the examined countries. Significantly, Western European such as Germany and the Netherlands seem to face the emergence of “gangster jihad”, with radicalised individuals often exhibiting experience with other criminal activities. On the other side of the spectrum, to date findings from Bulgaria indicate no signs of the existence of a crime-terror nexus.
