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| Public discussion: Transportation, Smuggling, and Organized Crime
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  On October 14, 2004 the Center for the Study of Democracy presented its new analytical report titled Transportation, Smuggling, and Organized Crime at a discussion in Sofia Hotel Balkan.
The report analyses the participation of transportation companies in smuggling practices.
 CSD Chairman Dr. Ognian Shentov opened the discussion underlying CSD particular attention to the role of the external borders and the trans-border organized crime in the last six years and CSD successful cooperation with the state institutions in charge of the control over the Bulgarian borders. He said that the present report was developed through a methodology which is different from the ones used in previous CSD reports about contraband like mirror statistics and comparison of the customs operation statistics with data from marketing polls. The report aims to uncover the problems posed by contraband and organized crime through the transport and transport infrastructure because the small and medium transport companies are pressed hard by the organized criminal groups. The specific characteristic of the Bulgarian case is the infrastructure which is being used by the Bulgarian and trans-national organized crime. Dr. Shentov pointed to the reforms introduced by the government and the progress that has been made in countering contraband. He spoke of the perspectives for Bulgaria as a future EU external border and the risks to the new members which are more attractive for the international criminal networks because of the low transaction costs.
 Mr. Philip Gounev, CSD Research Fellow and member of the working group, presented the two main objectives of the report – to make analysis of the risks posed by the weak spots in the transport sector and the transport infrastructure and to find out how the organized crime profits from this. He described the research methodology which included more than 700 interviews with drivers, employees in transport companies, former and present officers at the National Service for Combating Organized Crime, Customs Agency, Border Police and salesmen as well as terrain research at the border check-points Kulata, Kapitan Andreevo and Varna seaport.
He presented in details the first section of the report, which looks into the development of the transport sector in Bulgaria concluding that in the last 15 years there was a notable increase of the small and medium companies in this sector which are susceptible to corrupt practices. He described the specific risks in the bus, air and sea transportation.
In conclusion, Mr. Gounev presented the recommendations, most of which refer to the inter-agency cooperation and are targeted not only at the Bulgarian administration, but also to the neighboring countries’ and EU member-states’ administrations. Other recommendations relate to the border security, risk analysis and management of human resources.
 In his presentation, Mr. Tihomir Bezlov, CSD Analyst and one of the authors of the report, described the structure and operation of the organized crime at the borders. It is working in a network which proved to be particularly resilient and adaptive to changes. Mr. Bezlov spoke of the way of functioning of the network importing Turkish and Chinese goods from the beginning of the transition to present.
 Mr. Assen Assenov, Customs Agency Director, congratulated the authors for the detailed analysis. He made a few recommendations. The first referred to the term “contraband” used largely in the report, which is in fact only one of the numerous violations at the customs specified in the Customs Law. Mr. Assenov also suggested that a future report should analyze the economic preconditions such as trade agreements to which Bulgaria is a signatory. He recommended advising the business as well because at the end the common goal is to take this business out of the black-grey sector, legalize it and transfer it to the white economy.
    
Agenda and speeches
CSD Analyses and Reports: Transportation, Smuggling and Organized Crime
Media coverage (in Bulgarian)
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CSD.bg |
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Center for the Study of Democracy. |
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