In this article:
- EU-SOCTA 2025 highlights the need for greater collaboration
- i2 solutions deployed across Europol member states for 20 years
- A call to leverage existing, shared platforms to maximize efficiency and interoperability
In March 2025, Europol published the 2025 edition of its EU-SOCTA (EU Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment) report. In it, Europol highlights the evolving nature of organized crime and the need for continuous innovation, enhanced collaboration, and long-term engagement.
This flagship report is published every four years and provides a comprehensive overview of threats posed by organised crime across Europe.
Within the report Catherine De Bolle, Executive Director of Europol, stressed that tackling these threats requires agility and a coordinated approach. Further emphasizing the importance of expanding international cooperation is Magnus Brunner, European Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration, highlighting the importance of nation's signing up to further bilateral agreements and enabling Europol to work seamlessly with global law enforcement. While Polish Minister of the Interior and Administration, Tomasz Siemoniak reenforced the call that member states need to bolster resilience and capabilities through efficient cooperation, rapid information exchange and a comprehensive intelligence picture.
He also highlights the importance of making optimal use of existing and proven tools to strengthen operational effectiveness—a principle that directly aligns with i2 Group's mission as a technology provider with over 30 years of experience in supporting law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
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While these insights are critical, they also resonate deeply with the experience i2 has gathered over the past two decades as a trusted technology provider. Our solutions have been deployed across Europol member states for over 20 years, forming the backbone of intelligence-sharing capabilities used by law enforcement, intelligence agencies, tax authorities, and port administrations to combat organized crime. Over these years, expertise in our products has not only been developed within individual agencies but also shared across multinational organizations, ensuring a robust and well-integrated crime-fighting ecosystem.
However, one of our key observations is that organizations often overlook one of the most effective means of transferring intelligence and knowledge—through the common use of our technology. NATO has long recognized this approach, leveraging shared platforms to maximize efficiency and interoperability. Yet, many organizations still allocate significant resource towards procuring new tools rather than ensuring optimal utilization of proven and existing technologies, in many cases already embedded within the organization. Therefore, we strongly believe a more effective and strategic approach would be to focus on leveraging and maximizing the value of these established tools, rather than reinventing solutions.
The need for effective collaboration
At i2 we are dedicated to help facilitate the need for ever more effective collaboration and knowledge-sharing between organizations. Our User and Training Conference held in London in 2024 brought together a broad church of European and national agencies to exchange and share best practices and insights. This collaborative approach is an intrinsic part of how i2 helps its customers extract the maximum return on investment from our solutions, whilst improving operational effectiveness. Our openness to collaborate, shown in the past, present and future, also feeds directly into our product roadmaps to ensure our solutions continue to evolve.
We acknowledge that no single platform addresses all challenges, and just as member states collaborate on security, we too believe in collaboration. Working with partners and other technology providers is essential to empower our customers to fight serious and organized crime.
As an organization we must ensure that multinational organizations and their respective agencies can fully leverage the shared i2 technology landscape, expertise, and experience to enhance operational outcomes across borders.
i2 solutions used in real-world applications
The effectiveness of our solutions is evidenced by numerous real-world applications:
MTIC (Missing Trader Intra-Community) Fraud
Our technology has been instrumental in visualizing complex financial transactions and corporate structures, aiding law enforcement in dismantling networks operating across European member states.
Migrant Smuggling
By employing natural language processing, our software is assisting in analyzing intelligence leads from international partners, identifying smuggling networks, and facilitating the sharing of intelligence among collaborating agencies.
Counterfeit Products
A port authority has successfully deployed our technology to prevent illegal fertilizer imports. While the financial incentives for criminals remain high and penalties low, the environmental damage caused by counterfeit pesticides is significant, making effective intervention critical.
Criminal Exploitation of Vulnerable Youth
In the UK, our software has been pivotal in tackling county lines crime, contextual safeguarding of troubled families, and preventing youth from being drawn into criminal activities.
Social Media-Driven Crime
Emerging trends indicate that young males are being introduced to crime through social media, including involvement in e-pimping and the exploitation of OnlyFans models. Our technology has been leveraged to investigate such cases, supporting law enforcement in identifying and dismantling these exploitative networks.
Combatting illicit Firearms Trafficking
Our software has been used as a cost-efficient analytical software for tactical knowledge sharing between member states helping to combat illicit firearms trafficking.
Dismantling critical infrastructure used by hacker groups
As part of an international collaboration against a hacker group our software was used to efficiently share and overlay intelligence on which servers globally were used to conduct the attacks. This collaboration included both Europol member states and international partners.
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We remain committed to ensuring our customers can seamlessly connect, collaborate, and use our software to its fullest potential. By linking our customers with relevant data providers, maintaining transparency, and ensuring interoperability with our customers existing technology stacks, we enable agencies to drive faster and more cost-efficient results.
In an era where organized crime is increasingly sophisticated and transnational, the key to staying ahead lies not just in innovation, but in effectively harnessing and integrating proven solutions within a cooperative and intelligence-driven framework.
Collaborating for a Safer Future
We recognize that efficient and transnational intelligence and knowledge sharing is critical in tackling the evolving landscape of organized crime. As a trusted technology provider, we are committed to working with law enforcement agencies, intelligence organizations, and multinational partners to support their strategic requirements. We invite you to engage with i2 Group to explore how our solutions enhance operational effectiveness, strengthen intelligence-sharing capabilities, and maximize the impact of existing resources.
So, let's discuss how i2 can support your mission.
Reach out to me or the wider i2 team to schedule a consultation. Our next i2 User and Training Conference is taking place in November 2025 in Washington, D.C, and we welcome your participation. Agencies from across Europe and beyond collaborate on best practices, technology integration, and strategies for combating serious and organized crime.
Together, we will build a more resilient, cost-efficient and intelligence-driven security landscape.
About the author - Martin Kragh
Martin worked as a law enforcement officer and analyst at the Danish National Police for 16 years before joining i2 Group in 2015. Previously leading the EMEA technical sales team, Martin is now Global Law Enforcement Industry Leader.
