Operation Burza: Polish law enforcement detains transnational crime group.

A cross-border crime group smuggled drugs from Spain to Germany and the UK and from Poland to Norway and Sweden. Over several years, the group managed to smuggle up to four tons of narcotic substances and psychotropic drugs across Europe. Officers of the Polish Central Bureau of Investigation brought down the crime group, with support from law enforcement officers from the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, coordinated by Europol. The joint law enforcement operation stopped the smuggling of nearly 800 kg of hashish and 50 kg of cocaine. Thirteen people have been detained by the National Prosecutor's Office in Poland.

The operation to take down the criminals required extensive international coordination: officers from the Central Bureau of Investigation in Gdansk, Poland, supported by officers from the Maritime Border Guard Department in Gdansk, from Norwegian and Swedish Customs Services, as well as law enforcement from the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, worked together on the case for three years. This cross-border investigation coordinated by Europol revealed that since 2013 the group had smuggled nearly four tons of hashish, marijuana and cocaine from Italy and Spain to Denmark, Germany, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Centralising the investigation

Over the last three years, law enforcement confiscated several hundred kilos of drugs from the crime group, including 390 kg of hashish in Norway, 355 kg of hashish in Sweden, 50 kg of cocaine in the Netherlands and 50 kg of hashish in Poland. The cases from these countries were combined into one investigation and led by officers from the Central Bureau of Investigation in Gdansk, with prosecutors from the Pomeranian Branch of the Department of Organised Crime and Corruption of the National Prosecutor's Office in Gdansk. Europol coordinated the operational activities from the very beginning and supported the investigation in both EU and non-EU countries with analysis, operational meetings, mobile office and preparing the action days.