NCJ Number
158877
Date Published
1995
Length
46 pages
Annotation
This report provides an overview of drug trafficking in Europe's Balkan Peninsula.
Abstract
The political and social upheaval affecting the Balkan Peninsula has forced changes in regional drug trafficking patterns. The civil war in the former Yugoslavia has disrupted drug trafficking along the traditional Balkan Route. As a result, Balkan Route drug traffickers are attempting to bypass the war zone by exploiting traditional smuggling across the Adriatic Sea between Albania and Italy. These Adriatic smuggling routes, used for decades by Italian Organized Crime to smuggle cigarettes, are being used increasingly to smuggle heroin and other drugs. Drug smugglers also have taken advantage of the restructuring of drug law enforcement institutions in the former Communist nations of Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania. Changes in the infrastructure of drug law enforcement elements and revamped legal systems in these countries have not yet been institutionalized, offering temporary targets of exploitation. Police and customs officers in these countries are now faced with border control duties that were the responsibility of the military under the former communist regimes. The few remaining veteran officials and inexperienced replacements are hard-pressed to interdict the flow of drugs through the Balkans. Figures, appendixes