Guns and glory: Criminality, imprisonment and jihadist extremism in Europe

From October 2018 until the summer of 2019, the European Policy Centre (EPC) and the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) partnered in a research project looking at the link between criminality – including organised crime groups, local petty crime gangs or individuals – and jihadist terrorism, which culminated in this book.
These days, terrorist groups, in particular the so-called Islamic State (ISIS), are increasingly recruiting individuals with backgrounds in crime and using their skills, connections in the criminal world, and experience with law enforcement bodies to finance, plan, prepare and execute their attacks. This recruitment takes place both outside and inside prisons. In this context, EPC and CEP experts have carried out an independent assessment of these urgent challenges as they occur in ten European countries (Albania, Belgium, France, Germany, Republic of Ireland, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Sweden, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom). Drawing on this, they have proposed a number of bold recommendations to European governments and EU institutions to counter the ongoing threat when criminality intersects with jihadist terrorism.