Turkey has placed 10^th in a ranking that highlights the world’s most criminalised countries.

The biennial 2025 Global Organized Crime Index assesses 193 countries.

Compiled by the Geneva-based Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), it was first published in 2021. Turkey was also ranked 10^th for criminality in the 2021 and 2023 editions of the index.

bne IntelliNews in recent years has frequently reported on phenomena related to the work of mafiosi and the underworld in Turkey, including the country’s greatly expanded role in the world of cocaine trafficking.

In compiling the index, GI-TOC measures countries’ levels of criminality and resilience to organised crime across three categories: criminal markets, criminal actors and state and societal resilience.

In the 2025 edition, Turkey scores 7.20 out of 10 for criminality versus the global average of 5.08. That suggests a strong presence of illicit markets and well-rooted criminal networks.

Turkey’s resilience score, reflecting the state’s ability to withstand and battle organised crime, is 3.96, below the global average of 4.78. The country ranks 131st for resilience. Again, that is the same position it had two and four years ago.

For criminality, the report also positioned Turkey third among 46 countries in Asia and second among 14 countries in Western Asia. Turkey’s resilience ranking was 25th in Asia and eighth in Western Asia.

On the 2025 index, Myanmar topped the list as the world’s most criminalised country, with a score of 8.08, followed by Colombia (7.82), Mexico (7.68), Ecuador (7.48) and Paraguay (7.48).