Category: Eurojust

Source: Eurojust

The group was discovered after they were caught importing large quantities of tobacco into the country without notifying customs authorities. The tobacco imported by the criminal group was concealed as waste tobacco. After entering the European Union, it was transported to customs warehouses in Belgium, Spain and Italy, from where it was taken to Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands to be produced and sold as cigarettes. French authorities discovered that illegal tobacco was entering the country hidden in magazines.

The authorities soon discovered that the cigarette production plants scattered across Europe were connected. Investigations revealed that the same criminal organisation was responsible for setting up these factories. The group ran a sophisticated operation through multiple entities. One in Bulgaria was responsible for transporting non-tobacco materials such as filters, papers and adhesives to Greece and Italy. Another entity in Poland specialised in the logistics and transport of the tobacco and counterfeit cigarettes. The group recruited individuals across Europe, including high-value targets with extensive criminal records.

To dismantle the operation, a joint investigation team was set up involving French, Italian and Polish authorities at Eurojust. Throughout the investigation, the authorities were able to intercept several shipments of illegally cut tobacco, totalling more than 50 000 kg. In the meantime, several production lines were taken down and millions of counterfeit cigarettes were seized. The value of goods seized during the operation is estimated at EUR 13 million.

The dismantling of the cigarette trafficking network culminated in a joint operation in six countries on 19 November, and continued in France on November 20. 15 suspects were arrested, 2 in Bulgaria, 4 France, 1 in Germany, 4 in Greece and 4 in Poland. Searches in Italy resulted in the seizure of EUR 46 000, mobile phones, documentation and tobacco.

Coordination between the authorities through Eurojust and Europol was crucial to the success of the operation. The joint investigation team set up at Eurojust ensured that evidence and information could be exchanged and joint operations carried out.

The following authorities were involved in the actions:

• France: National Jurisdiction against Organised Crime (JUNALCO); Central Office for Fighting against Mobile Organized Criminal Groups (OCLDI); National Office against Fraud (ONAF);
• Italy: Public Prosecutor’s Office in Bergamo; Carabinieri Operational Department in Bergamo; Guardia di Finanza Economic Financial Unit in Bergamo
• Poland: West Pomeranian Regional Division of the Department for Organised Crime and Corruption of the National Public Prosecutor’s Office in Szczecin; Warmia and Mazury Border Guard Unit
• Belgium: General Administration of Customs and Excise
• Bulgaria: Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office; Investigation Department of Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office; General Directorate for Combating Organized Crime
• Germany: Munich I Public Prosecutor’s Office; the Munich Customs Investigation Office,
• Greece: Public Prosecutor’s Office (PPO) of the Court of Appeal of Athens, Piraeus and Thessaloniki; Investigative Judges of PPO of the Court of First Instance of Athens, Piraeus and Thessaloniki; Directorate for the Fight against Organized Crime; Subdirectorate for Combating Trafficking in Persons and Goods; Subdirectorate for the Suppression of Organised Crime of Northern Greece
• Latvia: 3rd Unit of International Cooperation Department of the Central Criminal Police Department of the State Police; Department for Combating Serious and Serial Organized Crimes of the Central Criminal Police Department of the State Police
• Lithuania: Vilnius Public Prosecutor’s Office
• Netherlands: Public Prosecution Service Den Bosch

Source: Eurojust

In 2023, the Albanian Special Prosecution Office against Organised Crime (SPAK) launched an investigation into the network. This investigation revealed that the network was involved in large-scale drug trafficking from Latin America through European ports, with Albania as a gateway to the wider European drug market. The seized laboratory was processing and refining drugs for wholesale to other OCGs across Europe. An estimate of the total volume of the drug trafficking and wholesale value is currently being made.

In addition to the laboratory, the following items were also seized:

• Nearly 50 tonnes of raw materials to potentially conceal narcotics
• Over 6 kilos of cocaine
• Almost 90 kilos of solid drug  mixing materials and 50 kilos of liquids for the preparation of wholesale cocaine
• Laboratory equipment, such as presses, acetone, glass test tubes, chemical materials, microwaves and packaging bags 
• Over EUR 50 000 in cash in various currencies
• Bank and phone cards, as well as various mobile communication equipment
• Six  vehicles

Eurojust assisted SPAK and the authorities in Reggio Calabria with the execution of requests for Mutual Legal Assistance from Albania to Italy. This was done through its National Desk for Italy and the Albanian Liaison Prosecutor at the Agency. Albania* is one of the twelve countries outside the European Union with a Liaison Prosecutor based at Eurojust in The Hague.

The operation last weekend was carried out by and at the request of:

• Albania: Special Prosecution Office against Organised Crime (SPAK)
• Italy: Public Prosecutor’s Office of Reggio Calabria; Guardia di Finanza Reggio Calabria

*The other countries with Liaison Prosecutors at Eurojust are: Georgia, Iceland, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom and United States. 

Source: Eurojust

Source: Eurojust

The network started its illegal activities in 2013. Its targets were recruited from Romania to work in a paper factory in Hungary. They were promised a job with eight-hour workdays for five to six days a week a salary paid in Hungarian forints and accommodation and meals.

After arriving in Hungary, the actual working conditions were much worse than promised. The victims’ documents were confiscated, depriving them of their freedom of movement. The criminals placed the victims under constant surveillance, took away their phones and withheld their salaries. Work in the paper factory was carried out in poor conditions in an isolated location, with victims working between 12 and 24 hours a day. Several of the victims were also forced to do domestic work at the criminals’ properties in Budapest. Seeking help or returning to Romania was made impossible for them.

The victims were primarily recruited from the foster care system, especially people with no family support and limited financial resources. This lack of support reduced the likelihood that family members could influence them to abandon their work in Hungary. The criminals took advantage of their victims’ plight to convince them to work in the paper factory, using them only to make significant illegal profits for themselves.

Investigations were launched by the Hungarian and Romanian authorities to take down the trafficking operation. Due to the international scale of the operation, a joint investigation team (JIT) was set up at Eurojust. The JIT enabled the authorities to share information and carry out joint operations against the network.

An operation to take down the criminal network by the Hungarian and Romanian authorities coordinated by Eurojust took place on 12 November. The authorities worked together in Hungary to identify 20 possible victims of human trafficking and seize over EUR 100 000, jewelry, cars, documents, pistols and other evidence. Eight suspects were arrested, all members of the human trafficking ring, and several properties were placed under sequestration.

The following authorities were involved in the actions:

• Hungary: Chief Prosecution Office of the Capital in Budapest; National Bureau of Investigation, Transnational Crime Department, Trafficking in Human Beings Unit
• Romania: Prosecution Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice, Directorate for the Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism – Covasna Territorial Office; Romanian Police – Brașov Organized Crime Brigade; Covasna County Police Inspectorate; Covasna County Gendarme Inspectorat

Source: Eurojust

Ongoing conflicts and evolving forms of warfare have increasingly highlighted the impact of military operations on civilian populations and infrastructure. During the two-day event, participants discussed the complexities of international humanitarian law and its application in modern conflicts, in particular in relation to war crimes investigations and prosecutions.

The Genocide Network also used the occasion to launch a new, searchable database of selected judicial decisions on core international crimes, translated into English. The database gathers key decisions from EU Member States focused on war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, as well as other concurrent crimes such as terrorism related offences.

Prior to launching the database, the Genocide Network periodically published a compendium of translated national jurisprudence on core international crimes. These judgments will now be more easily accessible for practitioners.

The biannual meetings of the Genocide Network provide opportunities for participants to come together to exchange expertise and best practices with key stakeholders. Closed sessions also support the exchange of information on core international crimes cases and legal challenges between the Network’s national contact points and their counterparts from observer states.

The Genocide Network was established in 2011 and is hosted at Eurojust. Together, Eurojust and the Network enable close cooperation and information exchange between national authorities. Due to the often complex nature of cross-border investigations, the Agency’s support through judicial tools such as coordination meetings and coordination centres is a key success factor in many cases.

Source: Eurojust

Source: Eurojust

Commenting on his election as President by his fellow National Members, Mr Schmid stated: I am obviously delighted by the election and would like to thank my colleagues for giving me their confidence. As we look ahead, my goal is to further strengthen Eurojust’s support for the judicial authorities across Europe. In recent years, criminal proceedings have grown increasingly complex, driven by the rise of digitalisation, increasing links to non-European countries, and a more interconnected web of criminal networks. It is only together that we will be able to effectively tackle these challenges and care for a more secure Europe.

The President of Eurojust represents the Agency and oversees the meetings of the National Members who meet regularly in the College, which elected Mr Schmid today. The President also directs and monitors Eurojust’s activities and management, in close cooperation with Administrative Director Mr Vincent Jamin. Mr Schmid will also cooperate closely with the two Vice-Presidents of Eurojust, Mr Boštjan Škrlec and Ms Margarita Šniutytė-Daugėlienė.

Eurojust has been a thread throughout the career of Mr Schmid. In 2014, he came to the Agency as a trainee via the European Judicial Trainee Network (EJTN) and later worked as a Seconded National Expert and assistant to the National Member. In 2017, Mr Schmid became Deputy National Member, in which capacity he held the role of Vice-Chair of the Counter-Terrorism Team.

In April 2021, the new Eurojust President took up the role of Justice Counsellor at the Permanent Representation of Austria to the European Union in Brussels. In this role, he participated in numerous Council negotiations on criminal and procedural law, as well as the Digital Services Act. In April 2022, he returned to Eurojust as National Member for Austria. Recently, he chaired the Advisory Group on Organisational Development, a panel which designed the priorities and internal procedures of the Agency.

Mr Schmid graduated in law from the University of Vienna in 2007, joining the Austrian judiciary the same year. After completing the national training programme in 2011, he became a prosecutor in Vienna, dealing with general criminal cases and later economic crimes. During his first period at Eurojust, Mr Schmid undertook a Master’s programme in criminal justice at Leiden University in the Netherlands, graduating cum laude in 2021.

The new Eurojust President in the past served as a guest lecturer at numerous universities in Austria and abroad and was a teacher for practitioners at the Austrian Ministry of Justice, EJTN, the European Legal Academy (ERA) in Trier (Germany) and the EU Agency for Law Enforcement Training (CEPOL) in Budapest. Mr Schmid speaks German, English, Dutch and French.

Source: Eurojust

The fake art recovered by the authorities included forged works by famous artists such as Banksy, Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Francis Bacon, Wassily Kandinsky, Gustav Klimt, Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh and Salvador Dalí. Investigations into the fake works revealed a network of forgers in Spain, France and Belgium. Once the fake works of art were produced, the network would work with several complicit auction houses in Italy to sell the pieces. To ensure the credibility of the auctions, exhibitions were organised throughout Italy and a catalogue of the art was published. Catching the forgers made it possible to avoid the works being auctioned off at prices close to the original works by the real artists.

The investigation into the network began in March 2023, when Italian authorities found around 200 fake works of art during a search order against an entrepreneur. This led investigators to monitor e-commerce platforms of auction houses to find similar works for sale and the sellers of these pieces. The investigation identified two forgers and two painting workshops that were used to produce the fake works of art.

As the investigation uncovered a European forgery network, cross-border judicial cooperation was initiated at Eurojust. Eurojust ensured that three European Investigation Orders were issued against six suspects in Spain, France and Belgium. The searches led to the discovery of forgery workshops and the seizure of 1 000 fake works of art and more than 500 forged certificates and stamps of authenticity.

The investigation led to charges against 38 suspects in the forgery network for conspiracy to forge and deal in contemporary art. Experts from the Italian authorities confirmed that the works of art were not originals and estimated the economic damage at approximately EUR 200 million if the pieces had been auctioned. By preventing these works from reaching the market, the authorities averted a major disruption to the art auction industry.

In agreement with the authorities involved and with the support of Eurojust, all the fake works of art and items seized in Spain, France and Belgium have been handed over to the Italian authorities for further analysis.

The following authorities were involved in the actions:

• Italy: Public Prosecutor’s Office of Pisa, Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage (TPC) – Unit of Rome
• Belgium: Investigative Judge of the Court of Walloon Brabant: Local Police of La Mazerine
• France: Judicial Court Paris; Central Office for Combating Illicit Trafficking in Cultural Property (OCBC)
• Spain: Juzgado Instruccion 1 of Olot (Girona); Guardia Civil

Source: Eurojust

The first meeting, which took place from 6-7 November, covered the topic of surrender between EU Member States and the United Kingdom. Partners from the United Kingdom presented an introduction to the UK legal system concerning surrender. This included identifying common legal challenges and sharing best practices on how to overcome them. The meeting included representatives from 29 countries.

From 7-8 November, a second meeting was hosted on extradition, organized with partners from the United States. During this meeting, the U.S. delegation presented best practices on extradition procedures and faciliated a drafting exercise of an extradition request. Representatives from 26 Member States and 7 third countries attended this meeting.

Both meetings also included participation from members of the European Judicial Network and European Commission. The meetings aimed to increase cooperation and understanding between the EU and its key partners, the UK and the US, on judicial matters. By sharing knowledge and expertise, practitioners will be able to better navigate the complexities of these procedures, ultimately leading to more effective and efficient cooperation.

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The UK delegation was led by representatives from:

• Crown Prosecution Service – Serious Economic, Organised Crime and International Directorate
• Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service – International Co-operation Unit
• Public Prosecution Service – High Court and International Section
• Crown Solicitor’s Office

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The US delegation was led by representatives from:

• U.S. Department of State, Office of the Legal Adviser
• U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Office of International Affairs

Source: Eurojust