BUCHAREST, November 7th – 25 persons were arrested in Serbia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, at the beginning of this week, following a regional investigation coordinated by the SECI Center and targeting a criminal group involved in illegally transporting migrants from China, India and Albania to the E.U.
This criminal group, which was composed of nationals from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Albania, Serbia and Greece, transported migrants by air through Moscow to Belgrade, and then overland to Greece.
In addition to coordinating this joint operation between Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Albania police forces the SECI Center also provided operational support. In particular, SECI Center analysts identified key elements of the transnational case and provided to the national investigators suggested investigative steps.
The joint investigation was initiated earlier this year by the Ministry of Interior of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia who requested the SECI Center’s coordination in order to dismantle an illegal migration network, whose members were believed to be nationals from several SECI Center’s member countries.
Using the SECI Center secure channel for exchange of information, the countries above mentioned were alerted and received the report drawn by the police officers of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. After serious and rapid investigations, Albanian and Serbian investigators confirmed the information and brought to light new aspects of the case.
The new information indicated the need for a face-to-face meeting of the police officers who were working on the case. The SECI Center’s Operational Support Department organized an operational meeting in July, at Ohrid, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Each of the case officers revealed to their counterparts important details regarding the members of the organized group and their illicit activities conducted within each country.
After this meeting, the SECI Center’s analytical team stepped in. Two SECI Center analysts combined the evidence threads from the national investigative teams to develop a clear regional picture of the regional organization. At the same time, the national teams continued to investigate, armed with the additional information exchanged at the Ohrid meeting. These teams, together with SECI Center’s Operational Support Department, had another decisive meeting in September, at the SECI Center headquarters.
At this meeting, the SECI Center’s analysts presented the hypotheses and conclusions developed through the analytical process, providing a view on the group’s structure and the key elements. Based on this report, the three countries’ police officers together drew up the action plan, comprising the future steps to be enforced for the success of the operation.
Based on the combined evidence, at the beginning of November, the law enforcement agencies jointly decided to act simultaneously and, over a 24 hours period, the police services from Serbia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia made the arrests.
The Serbian authorities charged 8 persons, out of which 7 have been arrested.
In the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, criminal charges were brought against 20 persons, out of which 18 were arrested. During the search of the houses of the criminal group members, the officers found 13,5 kilograms of marijuana, 16 vehicles, 2 automatic rifles, 1 hand grenade and 2 pistols, 50 telephones, and 2 binoculars. Since starting the investigation until the begging of November, the police officers of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia discovered a total of 64 migrants, 44 Chinese, 6 Indian and 14 Albanian, out of which 2 were minors.
“We at the SECI Center are very proud that we have helped the law enforcement agencies in the area in dismantling such a criminal group. The group was more dangerous than initially thought – the seized guns and drugs show that their members were involved in other criminal acts as well.
We want to commend the great work of the police forces from Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Albania, their managers, case officers and liaison officers appointed at the SECI Center in conducting this joint investigation.
This is a perfect example of how SECI Center can assist the member countries and how real cooperation at international level can have great results”, declared Ion Gabriel Sotirescu, SECI Center Deputy Director and Head of the Operational Support Department.
The SECI Regional Center for Combating Trans-border Crime, headquartered in Bucharest, Romania, was launched in 2000, and is a unique operational organization in which police and customs liaison officers from 13 member states (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey) work together in direct cooperation, coordinate joint investigations and facilitate information exchange.
Besides the member countries, there are 21 observers, countries and organizations: Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Canada, EUBAM, France, Georgia, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Slovakia, Ukraine, UNDP Romania, the United Kingdom, UNMIK, and the United States of America.
Italy and the United States maintain permanent representation at the SECI Center, and Interpol and the World Customs Organization are permanent (non-resident) advisors to the SECI Center.
For more information, please visit the SECI Center website: www.secicenter.org, as well as the official websites of the Ministry of Interior of Republic of Serbia www.mup.sr.gov.yu, and the Ministry of Interior of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, www.mvr.gov.mk, which has also posted photographs.
