Policija - Slovenian Police Seizes the Biggest Quantity of Precursors for the Production of Illegal Drug Heroin

This June, criminal investigators from the Criminal investigation Police Section of Maribor Police Administration, the Criminal investigation Police Section of Celje Police Administration and the Criminal Police Directorate of the General Police Administration, acting in cooperation with and on the basis of the policies of the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office, the group of state prosecutors for the prosecution of organised crime and the District State Prosecutor's Office in Celje closed a several-month criminal investigation operation against an international criminal community of smugglers of a precursor (acetic anhydride) intended for the production of illegal drug heroin.

In a long-lasting criminal police operation in which Slovenian Police cooperated with national polices from Germany, Ukraine, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Serbia and the Czech Republic, Slovenia seized the total quantity of 98 tons of the mentioned precursor intended for the production of the illegal drug heroin, which is the biggest quantity of this precursor seized in the world.

080703 vsi From left to right: Janko Goršek, Slavko Koroš, Marjan Fank

At today's press conference, more information on the investigation was provided by Slavko Koroš, head of the Sector for Organised Criminality at the Criminal Police Directorate of the General Police Administration, Marjan Fank, head of the Sector of Criminal Police at the Maribor Police Administration, and Janko Goršek, head of the Sector of Criminal Police at the Celje Police Administration.

The mentioned quantity of the precursor which the Slovenian criminal police seized at the territory of Slovenia, constitutes a record quantity both in global terms and in terms of the substance seized in individual countries. According to the data of the United Nations (UN) and its International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) the following quantities of the acetic anhydride were seized in the world:

69.197 kg were seized in 2003,
79.469 kg in 2004,
22.377 kg in 2005,
26.600 kg in 2006,
and ca. 31,000 kg in 2007, 19,000 of which was seized on the basis of information and operation of Slovenian criminal police.

In the light of the listed numbers showing the seizures of acetic anhydride it is undisputable that the seizure of the precursor from an international criminal community is of major global importance in the fight against producers of illegal drugs.

SlavkoKoros Slavko Koroš