VORONEZH, Central European Russia, June 13 (AVN) - Anti-mafia units of Russia's Central Chernozemny regions participated in the Granitsa (border) 2001 international preventive operation which was carried out in the area controlled by the Western border guard department from May 28 to June 6, a spokesman for the department headquarters said on Wednesday.
An operations headquarters was established to co-ordinbate policemen's activities with border guards, customs officers, migration service and other law-enforcement agencies, as well as to analyse and sum up results of the operation, the spokesman told the Military News Agency. Its branches were set up in the cities of Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk. They worked on the basis of the plan of joint operations with law-enforcement agencies of the neighbouring countries.
The tasks were determined and updated at working meetings with officials of the Ukrainian and Belarussian law-enforcement bodies. During the meetings officials exchanged information on members of organised criminal groups, worked out the tactics of their detection, detention and extradition.
As many as 1,525 criminal cases were launched and 2,118 crimes were detected as a result of the operation. Particularly, criminals were charged with nine cases of smuggling, two cases of organising criminal groups, 37 cases of illegal arms smuggling and 115 cases of illegal drugs turnover. Policemen confiscated from criminals 102 pieces of small arms, almost 1,800 pieces of ammo, 8kg of explosives, 56 vehicles, over USD452,000 as well as various contraband worth almost RUR12m (USD411,734).