Abstract
After the EU-accession on 1 May 2004, a great increase was witnessed in the turnover of the organized crime groups, which became more flexible and versatile, effectively penetrating more legitimate businesses. Especially as the borders opened up due to Schengen, it became much easier for crime groups to succeed in their operations, smuggling got relatively easier, and Hungary became even more a transit country. The reason for this is that Hungary is now the eastern end of the Schengen area. The Hungarian legislature aimed to take on and implement every framework decision into Hungarian legislation, thus numerous laws, acts and enactments were born accordingly to the EU expectations. The Hungarian criminal law punishes collaboration with any criminal organization, as well as the person who supports the criminal organization: "Any person, who instigates, suggests or offers, or joins or collaborates to engage in criminal activities in an organization, or who provides the means intended to be used for such activities, or supports the activities of the criminal organization in any other manner, is guilty of felony, punishable by imprisonment not to exceed five years." Hungary is not specifically a target country for crime, but rather a transit country. However, this tendency seems to change in certain areas of crime, for example, concerning drug smuggling Hungary is turning into a target country.
