Organized crime may be costing the global economy more than ever thought possible.

According to The Fiscal Times, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime found that transnational organized crime generated profits up to $870 billion just in 2009. That amounts to an estimated 1.5% of the entire global Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The criminals involved in these organizations are not garden variety burglars, 33% of whom would simply break in through front doors, according to the University of North Carolina.

Transnational organized crime is defined by the UN as “an illicit business that transcends cultural, social, linguistic and geographical boundaries and one that knows no borders or rules.”

The World Economic Forum (WEF) also recently published a list that outlined 12 different types of general illegal trades.

The most profitable of these was drug trafficking, accounting for about $320 billion of the profits. Counterfeiting came in second at $250 billion, with diamond trafficking at the bottom of the list with $0.9 billion.

The WEF also project that the global costs of just counterfeiting and piracy reached $1.77 trillion in 2015.

Organized crime is so deeply ingrained in some areas of the world that many people are now moving to different countries to escape it.

Insight Crime reports that both crime and violence are in particular driving large numbers of Central American citizens to migrate to the United States.

These findings have raised concerns over whether current U.S. efforts aimed at deterring migration are misplaced.

“Violence and crime as a push factor is going to outweigh anything the US can do in terms of deterrence,” says Jon Hiskey, the lead author of the American Immigration Council report. “This notion that deterrence is the answer is just missing the point.”

A report from the American Immigration Council showed crime victimization is a “critical predictor” of migration from other countries.

Focusing on Central America’s “Northern Triangle” countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, repeated victimization was associated with substantially increased migration.