The first phase of the project has been completed

The first phase of the project “Contraband & Counterfeit Risk Identification (Business Process Analysis and Spatial Aspect)” has been completed. The project was developed by a team of trained experts from the department “National and Regional Security” and investigate the smuggling of tobacco products in the Balkan countries and their way from Turkey to Western countries like Britain, Germany, France and Italy, as well as the impact that illicit trade in the economy, security and health in different countries.

For the first four months of hard work, the team led by prof.Dimitar Dimitrov managed to make a detailed literature review and gathered information on legislation and law enforcement agencies in the studied countries. The main result of the first phase is a description of the main indicators for determining the modus operandi of the smuggling of tobacco and tobacco products. This was achieved after collecting and analyzing over 400 real cases from different countries dealing with smuggling in the region.

Participants in the project made business trips to Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, Croatia, Serbia and Turkey, where they  have held meetings with officials from various bodies to combat smuggling and have discussed possibilities for future cooperation.