Organised crime gangs dealing in fake goods, drugs, human trafficking, and the illicit wildlife trade earn nearly $90 billion annually in East Asia and the Pacific, a UN report shows.
"Transnational Organised Crime in East Asia and the Pacific: A Threat Assessment" is the most comprehensive study ever undertaken of the subject, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said.
It estimates that the top money-makers for criminal groups are the trade in counterfeit goods ($24.4 billion), illegal wood products ($17 billion), heroin ($16.3 billion) and methamphetamines ($15 billion).
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Fake medicines ($5 billion), the black market trade in used electronics components to avoid legitimate recycling ($3.75 billion) and the illegal wildlife trade ($2.5 billion) also rank highly.
Migrant smuggling and the trafficking of women and girls for prostitution or general labour also earn crime bosses hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
UNODC deputy executive director Sandeep Chawla said the report opened the window on "the mechanics of illicit trade: the how, where, when, who and why of selected contraband markets affecting this region".
"It looks at how criminal enterprises have developed alongside legitimate commerce and taken advantage of distribution and logistics chains," he said at the launch in Sydney.
Chawla highlighted the growing problem of heroin. Consumption is rising across the region -- estimated at 65 million tons in 2011 -- with Chinese the main users and Myanmar the key producer.
"Myanmar is the principal source of opiates in Southeast Asia. Doing something about tackling opiates in Myanmar is a very important thing for the region," said Chawla.
"Clearly that is something that more attention can be given to with the change in government that's happening in the country at the moment.
Jeremy Douglas, the UNODC regional representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, said many of the organised criminal activities could have serious global health implications.
"Between one-third to 90 percent of anti-malarial drugs tested in Southeast Asia are fraudulent," he said, with China and India the main culprits in production.
"They do not contain what they say they do. Sub-standard drugs have two serious public health consequences: One: people get sicker or die; Two: drug-resistant strains can develop and cause a global health threat."
With rapid economic growth leading to a proliferation of criminal networks, he said the threat was now so great that it has the ability to "destabilise societies around the globe".
"Illicit profits from crimes in East Asia and the Pacific can buy property and companies and corrupt anywhere," he said.
"We need to talk about this, and organise a coordinated response now. It takes a network to defeat a network."
The trade in counterfeit goods is the most lucrative activity, despite being considered a "soft" form of crime, with China the worst culprit.
According to the World Customs Organisation, 75 percent of all fake products seized worldwide from 2008 to 2010 were from East Asia, primarily China, with the industry accounting for some two percent of world trade.
"The key players in counterfeit markets are brokers and logisticians who connect supply and demand," the report said.
AUSTRALIA RICH MARKET FOR CRIME: UN
The UN report identified Australia as a lucrative market for international crime syndicates which earn about $US90 billion ($A87.7 billion) a year in the Asia-Pacific region.
The first Transnational Organised Crime in East Asia and the Pacific threat assessment says drugs - primarily heroin and methamphetamine - account for more than a third of organised crime gangs' profits.
Methamphetamine trade in the region brings in about $US15 billion, and heroin trafficking is worth roughly $US16.3 billion, the report compiled by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says.
The study put Australia's heroin use at 602 kilograms in 2011, worth about $US645 million.
While this pales in comparison to China - where 47,316kg worth about $US1.05 billion was consumed - the price per gram was almost five times higher in Australia.
Similar price gaps were identified in the methamphetamine market.
The report estimates about 269,000 Australians a year use methamphetamine.
In China, where about 2,000,000 people use the drug, it sells for $US80 per gram.
Methamphetamine users in Australia and Japan, labelled by the report as the "expensive markets", pay five times as much, about $US400 per gram.
Most of these drugs are manufactured in Myanmar, Laos, Afghanistan and China, the report said.
"The evolving markets of meth ... should be of great concern," the Australian Strategic Policy Unit's Dr Toby Feakin told reporters at the launch of the report.
"There's an ease of construction of this particular drug, distribution and low unit costs, high levels of addictiveness, which are really an appalling recipe which Australia has to be hugely aware of."
International organised crime syndicates make $US24.4 billion a year selling counterfeit goods in Europe and the US, the report says.
Between 2008 and 2010, 75 per cent of counterfeit products were manufactured in East Asia, with 67 per cent coming from China alone.
The report also examined the profits organised crime gangs made from human trafficking and migrant smuggling, illegal harvesting and trade of timber and wildlife, and illicit trading in ozone-depleting substances and electronic waste and counterfeit medication.
