VZCZCXRO8193
RR RUEHKW RUEHMA RUEHSK
DE RUEHSL #0072 0501454
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 191454Z FEB 10
FM AMEMBASSY BRATISLAVA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0433
INFO RUEHUP/AMEMBASSY BUDAPEST 0015
RUEHWR/AMEMBASSY WARSAW 0010
RUEHKV/AMEMBASSY KYIV 0005
RUCNCRI/VIENNA CRIME COLLECTIVE
RUEHVI/AMEMBASSY VIENNA 0015
RHMFIUU/HOMELAND SECURITY CENTER WASHINGTON DC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEHSL/AMEMBASSY BRATISLAVA 0499

UNCLAS BRATISLAVA 000072 
 
SIPDIS 
 
VIENNA FOR DHS/ICE JAMES PLITT 
DHS FOR OFFICE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS AND VISA WAIVER PROGRAM MARC FREY AND GIANFRANCO CORTI 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: CVIS PGOV LO PREL UP PINR
SUBJECT: ONE DOWN, ONE DIRTY: CORRUPTION AND INCOMPETENCE TAINT 
SLOVAK BORDER POLICE 
 
REF: (A) 09 Bratislava 51; (B) 09 Bratislava 428 
 
¶1.  (U) Summary.  In the past six weeks, the chief of Slovakia's 
Border and Alien Police (BAP) and its senior officer at the 
eastern (Ukrainian) border have both fallen from grace, the 
former taking responsibility for a fiasco involving explosives 
secreted in luggage by the bomb squad, the latter for allegedly 
taking bribes.  The temporarily headless BAP bureau is of great 
importance to Slovakia's commitments under the Visa Waiver 
Program (VWP) and is a close collaborator on other U.S. 
priorities.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  (U) In early January, Slovakia scored its 15 minutes of 
international fame as a result of a botched bomb-detection 
exercise.  An officer working with sniffer dogs at Poprad 
Airport hid live explosives in the luggage of a Slovak who 
worked in Ireland.  The officer failed to retrieve it after the 
exercise, and through a series of errors, the luggage made it to 
Dublin, where three days later Irish police were able to track 
it down.  In the ensuing uproar, Interior Minister Kalinak 
survived calls for his head but BAP chief Col. Tibor Mako took 
the fall.  He has been re-assigned within the Ministry of 
Interior, which controls the BAP, but his career seems to be 
effectively at an end. 
 
¶3.  (U) Mako was an important Embassy and DHS contact in the 
lead-up to Slovakia's entry into the VWP in November 2008.  In 
September 2009, he hosted Embassy Consul, Poloff, and DHS/ICE 
attachi on a tour of Slovakia's border with Ukraine (ref B). 
The tour started at the BAP headquarters in Sobrance , commanded 
by Lt. Col. Miroslav Uchnar.  Uchnar accompanied Mako on the 
tour of border and to the ensuing official lunch.  Having heard 
rumors and specific information (ref A) more than a year ago 
that there was an investigation into malfeasance by an 
immigration official in the East, we asked Uchnar directly about 
internal controls during the day's conversations.  He told us 
that there had been no recent arrests or investigations in 
recent years, and showed little interest in the subject. 
 
¶4.  (U) Last week, Uchnar, who as head of the BAP in Sobrance 
was in charge of 880 policemen and the country's most sensitive 
border, was accused of accepting a bribe and abusing his public 
office.  He is suspected of taking a bribe of EUR 2,600 as a 
reward for securing a job for a 32-year old woman in his own 
Border and Alien Police Bureau, according to news reports.  It 
is noteworthy that the suspect BAP official we were told about 
in ref A was not Uchnar - we have heard nothing new on that 
case. 
 
¶5.  (U) Comment.  It would be surprising if an officer of 
Uchnar's length of service just decided to begin a life of 
corruption now, given the well-known and lucrative smuggling of 
cigarettes and other contraband over the border from Ukraine. 
One newspaper reported that on the Ukrainian side, officers pay 
EUR 10,000 to secure a job on the border, which they swiftly 
make back.  There have been low-level officers fired for 
corruption in the past, but no one near Uchnar's stature has 
been arrested in recent years.  We will be anxious to learn what 
emerges in the coming investigation by the police into one of 
their own.  If the allegations are limited to smuggling of 
goods, it will be a problem for  Slovakia and the EU.  If any of 
the rumors of corruption and abuse of the visa and residency 
permit system are substantiated, we will want to see some 
progress on cleaning house in light of Slovakia's scheduled VWP 
re-certification later this year.  End Comment. 
 
EDDINS