Serbia Lowest Ranked Balkan Country According to Global Organized Crime Index

Italy and the Balkans (Photo: PrintScreen YouTube)

Serbia is the Western Balkans' lowest ranked country according to the 2025 Global Organized Crime Index, with only three nations ranking lower out of the 44 European countries that were rated.

Radio Free Europe reported on Nov. 15 that only Russia, Ukraine and Italy ranked worse than Serbia. The Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, a civil society organization headquartered in Geneva, publishes the Global Organized Crime Index. According to the report for 2025, Bosnia and Herzegovina ranked sixth, while Montenegro ranked tenth. No data was published for Kosovo. The Global Organized Crime Index evaluates the level of crime and resilience to organized crime in 193 countries of the world.

Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime executive director Mark Shaw, said "organized crime is undermining democracy, the sovereignty of states, and even international peace and security." In Serbia, state actors play a key role in the organized crime landscape, the report's authors said, pointing out that political elites influenced key criminal markets.

They went on to say that corruption in state institutions made illegal financial transactions easier and protected criminal deals, and that senior state officials had been linked to notorious figures from the world of organized crime. Serbia remains one of the main smuggling hubs in the Western Balkans, the report said.