1st FLEC–UNODC Joint Briefing on Regional Drug Production and Trafficking Trends on the Western Balkan Route 2.0  

 

30 November 2023, Ankara, Türkiye: The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) partnered with the Foreign Law Enforcement Community (FLEC) in Türkiye for an operational briefing on regional trends and impacts of illicit drug production and trafficking on the Western Balkan route.

At a recent FLEC meeting, over 70 representatives from diplomatic missions and other international partners stationed in Türkiye and UNODC international experts exchanged perspectives on serious organized crime and illicit drug trafficking along the Western Balkan route and in the wider region.

UNODC was represented by Ms. Angela Me, Chief, Research and Trend Analysis Branch, Ms. Anubha Sood, Representative in Afghanistan, Mr. Alexander Fedulov, Representative in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mr. Ali Elbereir, Head of Office in Iraq, Ms. Harsheth Virk, Head of Office in Ukraine, Ms. Monika Roszkowska, Afghan Opiate Trade Project/Border Management Branch, Mr. Batyr Geldiyev, Passenger and Cargo Border Team/Regional Office for South-Eastern Europe, and Ms. Ebru Can Vandoornmalen, Paris Pact Initiative/Regional Office for South-Eastern Europe.

“The illicit trafficking situation along the traditional Western Balkan route is in continuous evolution”, noted Danilo Rizzi, UNODC Regional Representative for South-Eastern Europe in his opening remarks at the FLEC briefing. “Joining our efforts is crucial to ensure research and data is available enabling us to better design and act on comprehensive, integrated and balanced approaches to address the world drug problem, including along what we can call the Western Balkan route 2.0”, he stated.

Participants had an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the latest data and trend analysis from UNODC’s Drug Monitoring Platform, the flagship World Drug Report, the Afghanistan Opium Survey, and research produced under the UNODC Afghan Opiate Trade Project and Paris Pact Initiative. The exchange also covered perspectives from UNODC’s engagement in Ukraine, Iraq, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Türkiye and South-Eastern Europe more broadly.

The discussion during the briefing focused on the impacts of illicit drug production and trafficking in and around Afghanistan, the implications of current international crises, as well as key trends observed in UNODC’s work on integrated border management and addressing illicit trafficking and transnational organized crime in line with the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, international drug conventions and other international standards.

Given the evolving modus operandi of organized crime groups and the varying types of drugs observed along the route, which besides heroin, also include cocaine and increasingly methamphetamines, it was agreed to continue such exchanges and look into ways to work together to further facilitate and enhance inter-regional law enforcement and judicial collaboration along the Balkan route.