involving the police in the fight against organised food crime

Industrial fishing activity in Norwegian waters, an area where illegal and unreported fishing has traditionally been addressed through regulatory rather than police-led enforcement.

In the early morning hours of 21 March 2023, two vessels from the Norwegian Coast Guard anchored up just outside the small island of Vannøya in Northern Norway. Two smaller boats launched and headed for the fish processing plant located on the island. This marked the beginning of a coordinated raid, involving around 50 participants from the Coast Guard, the Directorate of Fisheries, the National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime, the Tax Authority and the police. The targets of the seizure were the company behind the fish processing plant as well as local fishers.

During the raid, documents, mobile phones and laptops were confiscated and coordinated arrests were made, also in other parts of the country. The people involved were suspected of large-scale, organised unreported fishing. In total, four companies and over ten individuals were charged. As of early 2026, the first cases have started making their way through the courts, but without any major convictions as yet.

This coordinated action was the culmination of not only a long investigation, but also years of work from the authorities to highlight illegal fishing not as mere minor violations, but rather as serious organised crime. It was also one of the first large-scale instances of police involvement at such an early stage of the investigation of fisheries crime.

Early police involvement as a strategic response

Illegal fishing, often termed IUU (illegal, unreported and unregistered fishing), is connected to environmental, financial and work-related crime. It disturbs the stock estimations of important fish species, involves large-scale tax evasion due to its high economic value and can be associated with illegal labour practices regarding wages, working conditions and social dumping.

While illegal fishing has been a recognised issue in Norwegian fisheries for years, it has traditionally been treated as a regulatory offence, controlled and sanctioned by authorities other than law enforcement, such as the Directorate of Fisheries. In these cases, penalties have mainly taken the form of administrative fines.

To date there have been few criminal convictions with cases often having lain dormant for extended periods – sometimes several years – before eventually being dropped. This has partly been attributed to a lack of prioritisation by the police, with food-related crimes often considered less serious than other crimes, as well as the lack of in-depth industry knowledge required for the investigation, which is not necessarily found in the police. As part of a greater focus on crime prevention in the national fisheries, there has been a targeted effort to enhance police competence in addressing crimes specifically within the fisheries sector. This includes measures such as dedicated courses on the prevention and investigation of environmental crime as part of police training, investigators dedicated to fisheries crime, as well as increased cooperation between authorities.

The turn towards organised crime

A development resulting from greater involvement of the police in the fight against illegal fishing in Norway has been the authorities gaining access to new tools and powers. One example involves treating fisheries crime as organised crime in instances where several people are involved. If three or more individuals have collaborated with the primary purpose of committing an illegal act that is punishable by a sentence of at least three years imprisonment, this can be defined as organised crime, for which the Norwegian Penal Code allows adding up to six years of imprisonment to the original sentence.

Since the Marine Resource Act enables a maximum conviction of six years imprisonment for serious violations, this brings the potential maximum penalty for illegal fishing up to 12 years – if defined as organised crime. Crucially, as per Norwegian law, if someone is suspected of a crime with a potential penalty of ten years of imprisonment or more, the authorities gain access to a set of tools they would not otherwise have, such as wiretapping phones and other means of electronic communication surveillance.

One of the first instances of this approach to seafood fraud in Norway happened in 2019, where an investigation uncovered a large-scale organised operation involving substantial quantities of the highly lucrative king crab being illegally caught, transported and sold, representing a value in excess of €2 million. By treating it as suspected organised crime, the police successfully used communication surveillance to secure evidence that proved valuable in court. The investigation resulted in several convictions and the dismantling of a criminal network that had spread across a large geographical area.   

These examples illustrate the potential benefit of involving police at an early stage of investigation and being able to define food-related crimes as organised criminal activity. Access to a different set of tools has proven a decisive factor in securing a conviction in an area that has previously been challenging. Additionally, the ability to impose stricter sanctions on those convicted increases the legitimacy of the system, allowing for harsher penalties for the most serious offences.

However, this new approach to fisheries crime is not without issues. First, the increased police involvement has not shortened the time spent investigating or processing cases – it can still take years for a case to make its way through the courts. Second, and more importantly, the involvement of police, alongside more intrusive investigation methods and stricter penalties, raises expectations of convictions. At the same time, stricter requirements for evidence are required when the case is processed as a criminal offence. This invites the risk of acquittal in cases that could have led to sanctions if they had instead been processed as regulatory offences with administrative fines. Interviews with industry actors regarding the above-mentioned case reveal that failure to secure convictions can negatively impact the perceived legitimacy of the system, given the resources spent and huge attention such raids attract. Regarding its effects on the perceived legitimacy of the control and sanctioning system, it can therefore be a double-edged sword.

Regardless, the aforementioned case of unreported fishing in Norway proves that increased police involvement from an early stage can have a positive effect when fighting serious and organised food crime. It affords access to new and valuable tools that can aid in various phases – both prevention and investigation. Increased upskilling through specialised training and collaboration with other authorities and relevant industry organisations can also contribute over time to strengthening institutional legitimacy. Ensuring that enforcement is perceived as fair, competent and consistent, it reduces the risk of distrust or non-compliance among stakeholders.

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