Between 4 May and 24 June 2015 law enforcement offices joined forces in Operation Blue Amber, which is one of the biggest operations in the fight against organised crime so far since if brought together police forces from 28 EU member states and other international partners.
Operation Blue Amber was organised under the auspices of Europol in the framework of the EMPACT (European Multidisciplinary Platform against Criminal Threats) project and represents a continuation of the successful one-week action Archimedes, which was held last year. Then the activities took place in 260 locations all over the world, which were selected on the basis of analyses of organised crime threat assessments. Results of these actions include more than 500 suspects, 2.8 tonnes of cocaine seized, 390 vehicles confiscated and bout 1300 tonnes of stolen metal seized.
The Slovenian police and Financial Administration participated in different actions of tighter control in the areas of vehicle theft, illicit drugs, illegal migration and payment card abuse in the purchase of airline tickets. Activities were carried out at the Jože Pučnik airport, at Port Koper and in the interior of the country. An operational centre was set up at the Europol's headquarters, where representatives of the Slovenian police were present and took care of round-the-clock and effective exchange of received information and requests with representatives of the other participating countries. In addition to arresting organised criminal group members, another goal of the operation was a fast exchange of current operational information and strengthening of police cooperation.
In early June, the Slovenian police carried out tighter controls on motorways, border crossing points and inland, focusing on vehicle theft. Officers in Ljubljana discovered a stolen vehicle and exchanged data on several vehicles and individuals with law enforcement authorities of other countries.
In mid-June the police participated in an operation taking place at airports targeting payment card abuse in paying for airline tickets. Forty-nine countries took part at 140 airports all over the world and the operation resulted in 130 arrests and 222 suspicious transactions reported. At the Ljubljana airport a number of on-line purchases of airfares were checked. Four cases of probable payment card abuse were identified. In one of these cases the payment card was later confirmed to be authentic, one person did not check in for the flight, while the remaining two cases are still being looked into. This form of work is important as it helps improve the detection of such abuse as well as cooperation of law enforcement authorities with payment gateways and airlines.
The Financial Administration and the police worked together in mid-June to control the transit of goods arriving in Slovenia from Afghanistan and Pakistan, on account of suspected drug smuggling. In the field of illegal migration the Slovenian police took part in a two-day data exchange exercise a couple of days ago. Information from criminal investigations into organisers of people smuggling was exchanged. In addition to control carried out at the Slovenian-Hungarian border, the police also exchanged operational information with other member states on planned transports of illegal migrants across Slovenia towards Italy.
The Slovenian police see fight against organised crime as one of their priorities. Slovenia lies on the crossroads between East and West, with the Balkan route traversing through its territory.
Therefore it is of utmost importance for the Slovenian police to integrate both with the EU member states and with Western Balkan countries. Without fast exchange of operational information in the framework of international cooperation it is no longer possible to effectively withstand organised criminal groups. An important role in this is played by EMPACT (European Multidisciplinary Platform against Criminal Threats), which accords priority status to certain crime areas. For the period 2014-2017 these areas are as follows: trafficking in human beings and illegal migration, trafficking in illicit drugs (cocaine, heroin, synthetic drugs), firearms and counterfeit goods trafficking, organised property crime, cybercrime and tax fraud.