In the mountains between Kosovo and Montenegro, horses and donkeys are the traditional means of transport. Today, they are still used intensively to carry all kinds of goods, mostly smuggled across the border zone which has become a haven for traffickers. The police discover fresh horse tracks. And in this car, all the equipment needed for petrol smuggling. This man admits that he earns up to 500 euro a day, selling petrol illegally. Even real petrol stations have set up in this no man's land. Their owners pay tax to no-one. Long queues for cheap petrol on both sides of the border have turned this place into the most interesting duty-free zone in Europe.

Interview Allan Clarke, UNMIK Border Police

"It's difficult because we have a unique situation here. We are on an administrative boundary line, and it's not officially a border. So it creates difficulties for us."

The difficulties are obvious and in spite of frequent controls, smuggling remains THE source of income for many people, while Kosovo and the region remain hot spots on the map of international crime.

Interview Ramush Tahiri, Adviser to the Kosova Assembly President

"I don't think that Kosovo and the Albanians are the source of crime. What we have here is a transit zone. So they are the middlemen."


No matter where the source is, organized crime spreads out from the region. It is estimated that about one thousand tons of smuggled cigarettes cross the Adriatic Sea every month ending up on the European market.
The port of Ancona in Italy is an important control point on the Adriatic route. Cigarette smuggling involves inter-connected chains, sometimes linking the producers all the way down to street dealers. In fact, the amount of cigarettes legally imported into some Balkan countries would suggest that every citizen smokes about 17.000 cigarettes a day. But more terrifying than cigarettes, is the traffick in human beings. In a single raid, the Belgrade police found 46 jailed Moldovan women and the resources human traffickers need- weapons, money and fake documents. This flourishing business is becoming as profitable as drugs trafficking. Instead of getting a promised job and a better life abroad, thousands of women end up forced into prostitution in the Balkans or in Western Europe. Every year, 200.000 women are trafficked through the Balkans on their way to big European cities. Another Balkan route is used by drug traffickers to bring narcotics from Asia to Europe.

Here in Great Britain, officials say that gangs from the former Yugoslavia and Albania control 70 % of the heroin market.

Faced with this growing threat, representatives of 57 countries gathered in London last November to draw up a common strategy to crack down on criminal networks, which are seriously poisoning relations between Balkan countries and the international community.

Upsound Jack Straw, British Foreign Secretary

"We can only defeat the scourge of organized crime if we tackle it together"

Interview Javier Solana, EU High Representative for Common and Security Policy

"You can imagine that a country of which the people don't have the perception that it is a country under rule of law, a country that is run by institutions or by mafias, by groups of organised crime, criminals, …that country will never get money from the international community, the investors will not have trust, …"

Interview Alessandro Buttice, European Commission Anti-Fraud Office

"The geographical position of the Balkans between the EU, Eastern Europe and the Middle East, is a crossroads for cross-border smuggling."

The geographical position is one thing. But wars in the region have also created fertile ground for organized crime. Macedonia managed to avoid a major conflict in 2001, but the country still has to cope with the criminal gangs who took root during these tensions.

Interview Boris Trajkovski, President of Macedonia

"We have to face the fact that the speed of our integration into Euro-Atlantic structures will depend on our own efforts and results in combating organised crime. Let's be serious, we cannot be partners nor negotiators with the EU and NATO if we don't deal with this properly."

Interview Ferenz Banfi, Deputy Head of the SECI center

"Most of the national law enforcement agencies have one type of information, but if this information is dispersed or divided or if we are not able to combine it, it means that we are not able to investigate the whole criminal network."

Exchange of information is only the first step. What really counts, is the number of criminals put behind bars. With different legislation still in place in different countries, criminals remain at large. What is considered evidence in one country might not be recognized in an other. This is one of the main goals of the Stability Pact. It encourages the countries of the region to harmonize their laws, and offers best practice to upgrade the fight against organized crime.

Interview Gabrijela Konevska, Stability Pact Initiative against Organized Crime

"Nobody is going to give you a testimony or to be a witness in front of any court if he or she doesn't have enough protection for that. Because after that if you don't have a protection program your life and life of people around you can be in big danger."

In March 2001, the Belgrade police discovered 600 kilos of heroin in a bank safe: a special deposit made by the police itself, when Milosevic was still in power. The heavy legacy of a regime, in which the dividing line between state and mafia gangs was blurred, has finally been brought to light. The heroine has been destroyed. But the ashes of crime remains.

On Belgrade newsstands, headlines scream of mafia leaders and former warlords settling scores. This shows that Balkan countries will need more time, political will and international support to heal their societies, and truly move forward.

Na nicijoj zemlji jedno vreme rade prave benzinske pumpe izbegavajuci tako placanje poreza.

Redovi za jeftin benzin sa obe strane granice napravili su od ovog mesta jednu od najzanimljivijih duty free zona u Evropi.

Allan Clarke, UNMIK pogranicna policija

Imamo probleme zbog jedinstvene situacije ovde. Ovde smo na administarivnoj granici ali to nije i zvanicna granica. To nam stvara teskoce.

Teskoce su ocigledne i uprkos brojnim kontrolama sverc ostaje izvor prihoda za mnoge a Kosovo ali i siri region - znacajno mesto na mapi medjunarodnog kriminala.

Ramush Tahiri, savetnik predsenika parlamenta Kosova

Ja ne mislim da su Kosovo i Albanci izvor kriminala. Ovde je rec o tranzitu a Albanci su samo prenosioci kriminala.

Bez obzira gde nastaje, organizovani kriminal ne zadrzava se u regionu. Smatra se da oko hiljadu tona svercovanih cigareta mesecno prelazi Jadransko more da bi zavrsile na evropskom trzistu.

Luka Ancona u Italiji je jedna od vaznih tacaka kontrole na jadranskoj ruti. Lanac sverca nekad ide od samog proizvodjaca pa sve do ulicnih prodavaca. Kolicina koju legalno uvezu neke balkanske zemlje znacila bi da svaki njihov gradjanin pusi oko17 hiljada cigareta dnevno.

Strasnija od trgovine cigaretama je trgovina ljudskim bicima. U samo jednoj akciji beogradska policija otkrila je 46 zatocenih Moldavki i komplet opreme jednog trgovca ljudima - oruzje, novac, lazna dokumenta. Ovaj rastuci posao postaje unosan koliko i sverc droge, a hiljade devojaka umesto obecanog posla zavrsava u prinudnoj prostituciji na Balkanu ili negde u Zapadnoj Evropi. Smatra se da oko 200 hiljada zrtava trgovine ljudima godisnje prodje kroz Balkan na putu ka nekom od zapadnoevropskih gradova. Sverc droge drugi je balkanski kanal, kojim se narkotici iz Azije krijumcare u Evropu.

Ovde u V. Britaniji zvanicnici kazu da bande iz ex Jugoslavije i Albanije kontrolisu 70 odsto trzista heroina. Rastuca pretnja okupila je proslog novembra u Londonu predstavnike 57 zemalja u pokusaju da se pomogne zemljama Balkana i nadje zajednicka strategija za problem koji je sve veca smetnja u odnosima sa medjunarodnom zajednicom.

Jack Straw, ministar spoljnih poslova Velike Britanije

Posast organizovanog kriminala mozemo poraziti samo ako delujemo zajednicki.

Javier Solana, Visoki predstavnik EU za spolnu politiku i bezbednost

Mozete da pretpostavite da zemlja u kojoj ne postoji vladavina prava, za koju se veruje da je vodi mafija ili grupe organizovanog kriminala - da ta zemlja nikada nece dobiti novac od medjunarodne zajednice, da investitori nece imati poverenja.

Alessandro Buttice, Evropska Komisija "Anti-Fraud Office"

Geografska pozicija Balkana izmedju Evropske Unije, Istocne Evrope i Bliskog Istoka, znaci ucinila ga je raskrsnicom sverca na medjunarodnom nivou.

Osim geografskog polozaja, ratovi su drugi faktor jacanja organizovanog kriminala. Makedonija je 2001. izbegla veci sukob ali se sada suocava sa posledicama kriminala koji je upravo tada pustio korene.

Boris Trajkovski, predsednik Bivse Jugoslovenske Republike Makedonije

Mora da nam bude jasno da che tempo priblizzavanja zemalja ka evro atlantskim integracijama zavisiti od njihovih zalaganja i rezultata u borbi protiv org. kriminala. Ne mozzemo biti ozbiljni partneri i pregovaracci za cclanstvo u NATO i EU ukoliko ne izagjemo na kraj s ovim fenomenom.

Makedonska policija nedavno je presekla neke od dugo nedodirljivih kanala trgovine ljudima. Politicka volja kljucna je u borbi protiv kriminala ali ona nije moguca samo unutar nacionalnih granica. Ova radionica laznih dokumenata, viza i pasosa potvrdjuje da org. kriminal deluje medjunarodno a da granice cesto nisu prepreka.

Medjunarodni kriminal zahteva medjunarodni odgovor . U Bukurestu u SECI centru za borbu protiv prekogranicnog kriminala carinici i policajci iz 12 zemalja Jugoistocne Evrope rade zajedno pod istim krovom. Cilj je brza razmena informacija unutar regiona. Na celu centra je predstavnik Turske, sto pokazuje znacaj sto sire razmene podataka na jugoistoku kontinenta.

Yalcin Cakici, sef SECI centra za borbu protiv prekogranicnog kriminala

Ako pogledamo na mapu vidimo da je Turska kapija na putu iz Azije u Evropu. Taj put je nekada sluziop za trgovinu, ali danas ga koriste kriminalci.

Ferenz Banfi, SECI centar

Vecina policija ima odredjenu vrstu informacija, ali ako su informacije nepovezane i rasturene, onda nismo u stanju da ih povezemo u celinu a to znaci da nismo u stanju da istrazujemo celu mrezu kriminala.

Razmena informacija je samo prvi korak jer ono sto se racuna je broj kriminalaca u zatvoru. Sa razlicitim zakonima od zemlje do zemlje kriminalci ostaju na slobodi jer ono sto je dokaz u jednoj drzavi nije u drugoj. Pakt za stabilnost pokusava da uskladi zakone i svakoj zemlji ponudi model za ono sto nedostaje u borbi protiv kriminala.

Gabrijela Konevska, Pakt za stabilnost Jugoistocne Evrope

Niko nece prihvatiti da bude svedok ni pred jednim sudom ako posle toga ne postoji odgovarajuci program zastite. Ako nemate program zastite, zivot svedoka i njegove okoline moze biti u ozbiljnoj opasnosti.

Porozne granice Balkana jos uvek su veca prepreka za policiju nego za kriminalce. Kao prirodna granica izmedju vise zemalja u regionu, Dunav je jedno od mesta ilegalnih prelazaka. Ova grupa ilegalnih imigranata uhapsena je prosle jeseni Hrvatskoj. Sve dok mafija bude imala bolju regionalnu saradnju od policije, necemo biti uspesni u borbi protiv org kriminala, kaze sef hrvatske policije.

Ranko Ostojic, Sef Hrvatske Policije

Pocinitelj je drzavljanin Bosne i Hercegovine, izvrsi kazneno djelo u Republici Hrvatskoj, a sakrije se u Jugoslaviji. I, imamo konkretnu situaciju da u Bosni i Hercegovini su zapravo sretni sta njega tamo vise nema, U Hrvatskoj nemamo niti jedan podatak o takvoj osobi a u Jugoslaviji trosi novce, prema tome nisu zainteresirani za njegov progon.

Marta 2001 beogradska policija otkriva u sefu banke 600 kg heroina koji je tu deponovala upravo policija u vreme Slobodana Milosevica. Na svetlo dana izaslo je tesko nasledje rezima u kojem nije bila jasna granica izmedju drzave i mafije.

Pola tone heroine je tada unisteno ali naslovne strane beogradske stampe pune mafijaskih obracuna i bivsih gospodara rata jos uvek pokazuju da treba mnogo vremena, jasne politicke volje i medjunarodnu podrske da bi jednom infincirano drustvo moglo da krene napred.