8 300 officers join forces to tackle crime from the Western Balkans

Almost half a million people, vehicles and premises were checked during last week’s Joint Action Days (JADs) , coordinated by EMPACT Firearms and Europol, in the fight against crime originating from the Western Balkans. For four days 8 300 officers from 28 countries, parties, Frontex and INTERPOL, were active at Europol’s headquarters and on the ground to fight against the illegal trafficking of firearms and drugs, facilitated illegal migration and document fraud.

From 5 to 9 September 2018, a coordination centre was set up at Europol’s headquarters in The Hague. It was attended by 44 officers from the majority of the participating countries, Frontex, Interpol. Fifty-six representatives from Frontex accompanied officers on the ground. The preparatory phase began in early 2018 with several operational meetings and intelligence-gathering activities. During this phase, several hundred pieces of information (persons, phone numbers, documents, etc.) were exchanged between all partners, 32 suspects were arrested, 102 firearms seized and 60 houses searched.

Results

The results from 5 to 9 September:

148 arrests:                                                                        

• migrant smugglers: 13
• illegal migrants: 71
• drug traffickers: 36
• firearms traffickers: 3
• firearms and drug traffickers: 5
• document fraudsters: 16
• others: 4

- 159 firearms, explosives and other weapons seized (and 1462 pieces of ammunition)
- 286 kg of drugs seized

Identified cases of:

• visa fraud/misuse: 22
• falsified documents: 40
• clandestine entries: 612
• refused entries: 178

 Cross-border cooperation

The EMPACT Firearms (lead by Spain) and Europol coordinated the operation. All the Western Balkan countries participated in the operation, namely Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo¹, Montenegro and Serbia. Alongside them, 20 EU Member States were also involved (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.  These joint action days were also supported by Switzerland, the United States, INTERPOL and Frontex so as to facilitate information flow and cross-check data against existing databases. Europol deployed one expert to Bosnia and Herzegovina for on-the-spot analytical and technical forensic support.

The operation in detail

A total of 482 014 people, vehicles, premises and parcels were checked against existing databases. The operation saw 180 people arrested; 32 in the preliminary intelligence phase and 148 during the operational phase. On 6 September, thanks to valuable intelligence, a Turkish lorry with 34 migrants on board was stopped in Hungary near the Romanian border.

Since last week, law enforcement have initiated 21 new investigations and more are accepted, so the total number of arrests will most probably further increase. These successes are due to the considerable amount of information exchanged between the operational centres and partners.

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¹ This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.