Ferenc Banfi Director Operations Support Department Motto: "When I was a child I had a big dream. I dreamed I would be a policeman. My dream converted into reality. I have been working for the police 21 years, so I am happy and thankful to God. I do not have a job! I have a vocation and my vocation is my life" OPERATIONAL ACTIVITY REPORT I. General view of the operational activity The SECI Regional Center became operational on November 1st, 2000. Administrative issues had characterized the activity establishing the most appropriate frame for the law enforcement cooperation. The Strategic Plan for 2001-2002 and the Annual Action Plan for 2001 were developed and submitted to the JCC for its approval. The Strategic Plan is a dynamic document, which has been reviewed and modified after two years since its approval. The Annual Action Plan of 2001 established the main operational goals of the SECI Regional Center. In accordance with the mentioned basic documents, the Center plays a unique role in the region. I. 1. Principles of Operation The Center provides a venue for member countries to exchange law enforcement related, operational information in a quick and timely manner, as well as to coordinate multi-national investigations in the Balkan region. The procedure is:! Requests for regional assistance are sent to the Center from the individual country through their Liaison Officer;! The Liaison Officer then disseminates it to the appropriate country liaison officers.! The involved liaison officers forward the responses to the country of origin. The Center also serves in coordinating the regional task forces. Currently, there are four task forces in operation: a Task Force on Drugs Trafficking, led by Bulgaria; a Task Force on Trafficking in Human Beings led by Romania, a Commercial Fraud Task Force led by Croatia and a Customs Valuation Task Force led by Albania. The JCC has approved the proposals for establishing new task forces, one on financial crimes, which will be headed by FYR of Macedonia, a Task Force (TF) on stolen vehicles, which will be led by Hungary, a TF on trafficking in small arms led by Albania, and a TF on trafficking in strategic materials led by Romania. The terrorist attack on September 11th, 2001 has opened a new chapter in combating terrorism and the related organized crime phenomenon. The JCC immediately recognized that the usual way of fighting terrorism is not sufficient and effective. There is a need for a new approach in combating
terrorism, and it is expressed in a declaration and a resolution that identify the related issues of the SECI Regional Center. I. 2. National Single Point of First Contact (National Focal Point) As part of the agreement founding the Southeast European Cooperative Initiative (SECI) Regional Center for Combating Trans-border Crime, Member States are required to establish a National Point of First Contact (National Focal Point- NFP). The purpose of the NFP is to provide a contact point between the SECI Center and its nation. The NFP fulfills two roles; first, it acts as a clearing-house for information requests sent from the Center, ensuring that requests are sent to the proper authorities in its country; and, secondly, it gathers the responses, and returns them to the Center. The structure of the NFP is not critical; the procedures and capabilities are. The existing NFPs were examined both structurally and in terms of capabilities, the result being a recommended model for the National Focal Points, which focuses on the capabilities of each SECI Center Member State. There are some minimum personnel and equipment requirements necessary to achieve the mission, and those are described in a special report. I.3. Liaison Officers At the beginning of the year in January 2001 two police liaison officers were assigned to the SECI Center by Romania and Hungary. The number of the liaison officers has increased month by month, and by the end of the year, 15 liaison officers were assigned to the Center from nine countries (eight from customs, seven from police). Our colleagues are well trained, experienced, and they have a strong commitment to the SECI Center's mission. The members of the Center were permanently formed as a unitary team. As a result of the wellmotivated team, the SECI Regional Center has had an increased dynamics of the operational activity. II. Counteraction of transborder crime The SECI Regional Center has been providing support to the liaison officers and organizing task forces in combating transborder crime. In accordance with General Standards and Procedures for Information Processing, cooperation was achieved between the different law enforcement agencies. Under the umbrella of the SECI cooperation, 3112 pieces of information were exchanged, 1874 by liaison officers, 661 in respect of BULLDOG, and 577 regarding CUSVAL 1 Operation. II. 1. Counteraction of trafficking in human beings The international trafficking in human beings has become a phenomenon, which is spreading due to the legal gaps, and the lack of cooperation between the institutions assigned to fight against it, and also the social, economical and military changes that have occurred in South-Eastern Europe and Afro-Asian area. International prostitution has flourished in military conflict areas in the Balkan countries; a luxurious prostitution market in countries such as Greece, Japan, Italy, Austria and Germany is a growing trend. Romanian police as task force coordinators - have shown their determination to cope with this scourge by launching a strategy at the cooperation level among SECI law enforcement agencies that include Police, Border Police and others.
The countering activity took into account the illegal particularities related to the entrance and the exit from the countries, as well as the organized networks acting within the territories of all the states transited by the immigrants. Three sub-regional meetings were organized for the Eastern, Southern and Western border of Romania, including representatives of the states from the transit area, intelligence units, liaison officers from the SECI Center and representatives of the Border Police. This new approach emerged from the necessity of analyzing this matter at regional level, as the transborder networks could not be identified since the agencies involved tackled migration as a local or regional phenomenon. It is not possible to discover the connections between persons and groups, or to establish clear objectives based on an indepth study of the operational framework without a coordinated analysis of the available information. In the Task Force meeting on trafficking in human beings in Thessalonica, Greece, in July, the participants approved an Annual Action Plan, and there was an agreement that was made related to the enhancement of the activity of the task force to include illegal immigration and people smuggling. Case studies During the last year, the liaison officers exchanged 449 pieces of information. Most of them are based on individual requests. The others were special criminal intelligence referring to criminal groups and transit routes of white slaves trade, initiated without any previous request. One operation was directed against 1,065 transport companies owning vehicles; 386 of those have been verified, 115 offences being detected, and 111 transport licenses taken or to be cancelled; they applied 132 fines for minor offences totaling RoL 513 millions by the Romanian national task force in coordination with the SECI Center. The Romanian task force coordinator and the police liaison officer within the Center worked with the Operational Support Department. Case 1 In a case involving a Romanian citizen, administrator of an international transport company in Craiova, over the last three years more than 1,500 persons have been transported by this company to Schengen states as illegal immigrants. They used to recruit people for alleged tourist travels in South- American countries, then obtain visas for them; claiming that there were no more plane tickets left for direct flights, they used to transport the so-called tourists to Schengen states, where those would have taken a plane to get to the Latin-American countries. Eventually, the false tourists remained on the territory of West-European countries as Italy, Austria, Germany, a/o. Case 2 Romanian police in cooperation with the Border Police from Timisoara Airport discovered three Albanian citizens who intended to leave the country to reach Canada using forged passports. The inquiry revealed that the above-mentioned Albanian citizens had been helped to leave Romania by an international network; some of the members of this criminal group were Romanian, and a German citizen as the head of the group. The German citizen provided Greek, Italian and German passports for USD 10,000, and he had received the amount of USD 60,000 from many people interested in buying one. Analyzing the advertising from the daily media, the officers fighting the organized crime noticed a new method: using as legal frame companies dealing with artistic management or recruiting housemaids, call-girls, and models. In this field, the structures for countering organized crime cooperated with the liaison officers, the SECI Center, and the intelligence unit within the Ministry for Domestic Affairs, and managed to
identify 430 persons (167 in procuring, 221 in prostitution and 42 in other criminal activities), having committed 397 offences (prostitution 127 of which 96 were abroad, and procuring 165, of which 110 were abroad). A network of five procurers acting in Italy was detected as a result of information obtained by the Directorate for Countering the Organized Crime. Case 3 They also succeeded in dissolving one of the most important white slave trading organization for practicing prostitution abroad, on the route Romania - Bulgaria - Greece, led by Greek natives. The investigations revealed that between 1999 June 2001, they had recruited and transported to Greece over 1,000 young women, who were forced to practice prostitution in nightclubs. Case 4 Original information was forwarded from the US INS to the Macedonian Police liaison officer, that 17 foreigners were staying in FYR of Macedonia for the purpose of illegal immigration to the United States. They intended to use forged documents (passports and visas), and to travel through Southeastern and Western Europe, South and Central America to the US. The countries and organizations involved in this operation are Albania, Bulgaria, FYR of Macedonia, Slovenia, Turkey, Mexico, USA INS offices in Austria, Bosnia Herzegovina, Italy, Mexico, FBI, and USSS. Twenty countries were asked to put the 17 persons on the watch list in order to foster the surveillance of their transit. Case 5 The Albanian Police liaison officer received information of an on-going investigation related to trafficking in human beings from Albanian authorities. The available information mentioned that some criminals were arrested related to that investigation, because they were dealing in white slave trade. The countries of origin are Moldova, Ukraine, Romania. Transit countries are Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Romania, and Yugoslavia, including Serbia and Montenegro. Destination country is Italy. II. 2. Witness protection project The SECI Regional Center received a request from UNMIBH regarding an on-going investigation on the field of trafficking in human beings by the BiH law enforcement authorities. Available information refers to two witnesses who are under the protection of UNMIBH with the help of SFOR. SECI Center was asked to seek further assistance in order to fulfill the witness protection program in the 3rd country. The SECI Center has made huge efforts in order to find the appropriate solution. In this respect, we recognized that the ability of a witness to testify in a judicial setting, or to cooperate with law enforcement investigations, without fear of intimidation or reprisal, is critical to the maintenance of justice in any civilized society. An increasing number of police forces and agencies throughout Europe have established specialized units to protect witnesses in case of serious crime, or where there is clear indication that cooperation with law enforcement or testifying in court would jeopardize the life of the witness, or the witness's family. The SECI Regional Center has developed a proposal for a regional agreement on witness protection, designed to be use by both member and observer countries.
II. 3. Counteraction of illegal drug trafficking There were 236 pieces of exchanged information on drug cases, which were characterized mostly by bilateral cooperation. The individual investigations refer to the several classical Balkan routs; usually the neighbor countries forwarded requests to each other. Concerning the international cooperation on illicit drugs trafficking, it is clear that the requests aim the detection of the connections between criminal groups. Case studies Case 1 On March 14th -15th, 2001 in Skopje, the second meeting of TF took place. The main purpose of the meeting was the identification of a specific criminal organization to be the target of joint action. As a result of the proposals of Bulgarian Organized Crime Department and Macedonian Antidrug Service such an organization was identified. All participants approved that aim, and received specific tasks accordingly. The criminal organization had been trafficking drugs to Europe through the Balkan route for more than 20 years. The joint report was issued prescribing the future steps of the operation, which was called SLEEPER. The main countries involved were Macedonia, Bulgaria, Hungary and Turkey. The observer countries interested in developing and investigating the case were US, Austria, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. It was agreed that all information related to the operation should be delivered to the Macedonian contact point NCB Interpol Skopje. Two further meetings were organized under the umbrella of Sleeper Operation in 2001. Case 2 The Romanian General Directorate for Combating Organized Crime arrested a group of Turkish citizens who had introduced 11,590 kg of amphetamine powder to Romania in order to produce amphetamine pills. They had established a warehouse and lab in Romania. The previous information indicated that the mentioned group had cooperation with Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Turkey. The first police action was taken on August 29th, 2001 by the Romanian authorities. Requests were sent to Bulgaria, Hungary and Turkey in order to identify the links of the criminal group with the mentioned countries. Case 3 The Drug Enforcement Department of Bulgarian Customs has started an investigation concerning 126.330 kg of heroin, the seizure being made at the Bulgarian-Turkish border. During the investigation it was identified that the case is linked to criminals who are living in Romania. As a result of good collaboration between the law enforcement authorities of the two countries, valuable information was collected. Case 4 The SECI Regional Center received a request from the French observer relating to an actual drug case. Four packages amounting to a total quantity of 6 kg of ecstasy had been seized in the building of an express envelopes company in Paris. The subsequent investigation identified a suspect, who was a Romanian citizen. Moreover, he had relations with Italy. The requests were sent to
the Romanian and Italian authorities in order to set up a close cooperation among the involved countries. II. 4. Counteraction of commercial fraud In commercial fraud, the liaison officers within the Center exchanged 251 pieces of information. Those requests required the clarification of customs declaration documents, values of goods, which were based on the early warning system. Operation BULLDOG Within the SECI project for combating transborder organized crime, the Customs Administration of the Republic of Croatia has taken over the role of chairing the Commercial Fraud Task Force (CFTF). Based on the recommendation of the SECI Center in Bucharest, the Audit, Supervision and Anti-Smuggling Department at the Croatian Customs Headquarters has prepared the initial study defining the goals, terms of reference, procedural mechanisms and responsibilities within this Task Force. Conclusions of the first CFTF meeting held in Dubrovnik, Croatia on February 19th-20th, 2001, and the operational plan (OP) of the first tactical exercise have been drawn up. The implementation and coordination of the OP was taken over by the newly established Operational Control Center (OCC) of the Croatian Customs Headquarters (CCHD) in Zagreb. Beside the Republic of Croatia and the other SECI member states, some international institutions such as OLAF, the WCO and some European states have shown interest either in active participation in - or the results of - this tactical exercise, symbolically called BULLDOG. Results of the tactical exercise (TE) BULLDOG The tactical exercise lasted from May 25th to August 31st, 2001. During that period, the OCC of the CCHQ received the following number of the target commodity movement reports (overview is given by country as per the initial report): 1. Croatia 371; 2. Hungary 122; 3. Romania 81; 4. Bulgaria 47; 5. BiH (Republic of Srpska) 26; 6. FYR of Macedonia six; 7. Albania five; 8. Turkey three. The Croatian Customs seized 27,130 sleeves of smuggled cigarettes during the mentioned period. We would like to point out that the two biggest seizures amounted to 14,503 and 10,477 sleeves respectively. Although it cannot be claimed that all the seizures were a direct result of the BULLDOG TE, we would like to reiterate that this TE has additionally drawn the attention of customs officers to combating the smuggling of this high-risk commodity. Also, a more comprehensive overview of the cigarette consignments' movements in Croatia and the region was achieved. II. 5. Counteraction of customs valuation fraud (CVTF) In accordance with the SECI Center Guidelines for the Task Forces, the 1st CVTF Meeting took place in Tirana on October 26th, 2001. Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Hungary, Romania, Turkey, as SECI members, as well as France and Ukraine, as observer states, attended the 1st CVTF meeting in Tirana. Most of the authorized representatives, present at the Tirana meeting, expressed their countries' commitment to participate in the TF operational exercise. Furthermore, TF members adopted unanimously the Valuation Antifraud Project ToR, without any change, they even asked for an extension of the list of commodities placed under CUSVAL 1 profile, from four to 13 groups of merchandises. TF
members also concluded that the joint antifraud cooperation exercise would cover the period from December 2001 until February 15, 2002 running for 60 working days with a break to fit in the winter holidays. In compliance with ToR on TFCV, TF members decided that CUSVAL 1 evaluation would be carried out by the end of February 2002, and a final report, including follow-up proposals would be presented at the 2nd CVTF meeting by the end of March 2002. Scope of CUSVAL1: CUSVAL 1 aims at preventing, detecting, and repressing Customs valuation fraud by establishing some solid and reliable channels for pre-arrival intelligence exchange, including establishment of a sustainable network of enforcement professionals (contact persons network) that might and should be used for post-operation verification of suspect import/export/transit transactions. Customs Valuation Fraud for the object of CUSVAL 1 operation is defined after the comprehensive WCO definition. Therefore, Customs Valuation Fraud reported in advance of clearance formalities includes not only double invoicing, but also other aspects of untrue declaration, such as false description, misclassification, etc. Previous evaluation of CUSVAL 1: Up to date progress of CUSVAL 1 operation is satisfactory in general. Furthermore, the following preset objectives seem to have met in a very comprehensive way:! A reasonable, but not yet satisfactory participation level was met, for as long as eight SECI members of our 11 signatories are actually involved.! The statistics show that 577 export declarations were exchanged among parties.! A sustainable network of professionals was also put in place, as eight members had already assigned their active Persons/Teams of Contacts, including their workable coordinates. Communication lines between OCU and those among participating entities are apparently well functioning.! Communication between SECI Center and Albanian OCU shows improvements, too. Above all, the communication among countries' representatives themselves has largely improved, compared to the previous tactical exercise. II. 6. Counteraction of financial crime Previous assessment of the financial crime situation in SEE Modern financial and cyber crimes have become increasingly complex and international. It is an unfortunate fact that the same advantages information and telecommunication technology offer to commercial ventures, such as expanded and high speed communication, the ability to coordinate personnel and the ability to process large amounts of information also provide advantages for the criminal schemes. Especially with the use of computers, a criminal scheme can expand over several countries simultaneously at very low costs and risk for the criminal. As any single crime is now committed in many countries simultaneously, it affects therefore several economies simultaneously. Southeastern Europe is a region where trade and investments have become essential to the growth of its economies. It is also a region whose constituent economies are increasingly
interdependent. Thus, Southeastern Europe is particularly sensitive to the effects of financial crimes. The current financial crime trend, based on information technology, compels the various law enforcement agencies in the region to coordinate their investigative efforts. In the interest of protecting the economies in its region, and its mission to combat cross-border crime, SECI is an appropriate center for a Financial Crimes Task Force. The JCC has approved the related proposal and the possible strategy has worked out for a financial crime TF in 2001. The first meeting was held during January 31st and February 1st in Skopje, where Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, FYR of Macedonia and Turkey were represented. Participants approved the strategy of the TF and the Annual Action Plan for 2002. Mission The Financial Crimes Task Force will coordinate its constituent agencies' resources to effectively identify, investigate, prosecute and prevent financial crimes in the SECI region. The Task Force will analyze data provided by its constituent agencies and financial institutions to target problem areas. It will create a methodology for investigating and prosecuting financial crimes that can be adopted by its constituent agencies. This methodology will include development of investigative protocols, evidence gathering techniques, and electronic forensics of maximum effectiveness during prosecution. Targeted fields of the Financial Crime Task Force The financial and cyber crimes are obviously a very complex phenomenon, which means that the phrase financial crime is a collective term. According to this, four targeted areas of financial crime were identified as follows: 1. Counterfeiting of currency; 2. Payment cards related crime 3. Money laundering 4. Computer crime in respect of finances aspects. It was decided that the counter activity of the mentioned sub-areas is going to be set up upon a priority list step by step. The first sub-project has been developed and agreed for combating counterfeiting of currency and payment cards related crime under the code name E-fox. The operative action E-fox shall refer to the detection of the newest trends, routes and techniques for counterfeiting and combating the mentioned crime phenomenon on currency (national currencies, EURO and US $) and payment cards in 2002. The US Secret Service advisors will provide initial technical assistance in this aspect of the Task Force. This will include training in data analysis techniques, and provision of analytical software. Also, experts from UN, European Commission OLAF, Guardia di Financa, Council of Europe and specific European countries will offer technical, professional and other assistance in this area. II. 9. Working group on the Terrorist Attack of September 11th, 2001 The Southeast European Cooperative Initiative (SECI) Center for Combating Trans border Crime has expressed in a Resolution its great dismay for the terrorist attacks against the people of the United States of America, which took place on September 11th, 2001. The Resolution obliged the SECI Center to assist in the investigation of terrorist activity through
information exchange and intelligence from and throughout the region. In accordance with the Resolution, the tasks of the SECI Center were identified as follows:! To provide the United States proper assistance in investigating the terrorist activity! To provide appropriate information regarding the flow of refugees for the SECI member states and the Western European countries and;! To provide assistance for the SECI member states for their prevention and counter activity of terrorism and to keep their public order. Establishing of a working group within the SECI Regional Center For the fulfillment of the three main goals, a special working group was established and led by the Head of OSD. The project manager of the fulfillment of the Resolution is the Turkish Police liaison officer. Members of the working group are the Hungarian Customs the Romanian police and the FYR of Macedonia police liaison officer. Also, the other liaison officers' contribution to the common activity was agreed. The liaison officers exchanged 71 pieces of information on terrorism in 2001. III. The establishing of the intelligence system of the SECI Center A proposal was initiated and elaborated by the Bulgarian customs liaison officers for establishing a database of the SECI Center, in accordance with the existing task forces (drugs, human trafficking, and commercial fraud). The main goal is to compile the strategic analysis on transborder crime in harmony with the SECI Agreement. The proposal was discussed, developed and previously agreed by the liaison officers at the Center. The document was sent to the SECI countries to provide an occasion to express their opinion and contribution for the final version. The Romanian police liaison officer and FBI representatives under the umbrella of the task force on trafficking in human beings worked out a survey on trafficking in human beings phenomenon. The main purpose of this survey is to provide the law enforcement agencies operational information related to actual cases. Special training was organized on the intelligence field for liaison officers and country experts by the DEA. During the second half of 2001, absence of heroin characterized the black market in Romania. For the better understanding of the law enforcement agencies, information was gathered from eight SECI states and, a report was issued on heroin situation in the region. The antiterrorism working group of the Center issued one report on the Afghans movement. Exchanged Information by Police and Customs Liaison Officers 515 1359 Police Customs
Exchanged Information by Police, Customs LOs, BULLDOG and CUSVAL Operations 661 577 515 1359 Customs Los Police Los BULLDOG CUSVALL 1 Exchanged Information within the SECI Center in 2001 500 455 400 300 200 100 0 261 224 183 171 88 72 101 119 105 28 7 January March May July September November