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UN launches new project to help south-eastern European countries fight organized crime

UN launches new project to help south-eastern European countries fight organized crime

The United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (ODCCP) today announced the launch of a new project aimed at strengthening the ability of south-eastern European countries to fight drug trafficking and organized crime.

The project, which is partly funded by the Government of the United Kingdom, involves the collection and analyses of criminal intelligence by Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Romania and Slovenia.

The new initiative comes in response to a growing heroin trade and higher levels of drug abuse among younger addicts, according to ODCCP, which has been working for the past three years with several governments in the region to cope with the problem. During that period, their coordinated activities contributed to the seizure of 1,127 kilos of hard drugs.

The new $2.2 million project is expected to enhance the capacity of these countries to identify traffickers and disrupt their networks.