The crime is simple: buy non-authorised chemicals from China for €14 per litre and sell them on the European black market for five times the price.
Deduct costs for packaging and transport and the net profit will be close to €70 on each litre, according to Europol, the EU’s crime-fighting agency.
A single shipment of 160 tonnes generates €11.2m. Tax-free and almost completely risk-free. It’s a crime we can hardly see, and it very rarely comes to court.
“The risk of being arrested and convicted is small, while the margins of the product are huge,” says Rien Van Diesen, the expert in illegal pesticides at Europol.
The risk of being caught red-handed is minimal, and even then, the sanctions would hardly hurt.
Based on estimates from EU institutions somewhere between one-in-ten and one-in-seven fields in Europe are being sprayed with pesticides that has evaded authorisation or regulatory checks.
In Germany, 11 cases of seized illegal pesticides have been brought to public prosecutors since 2011. None of them has so far led to a conviction.
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