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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BELGRADE 001139 
 
INL FOR J LYLE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O.12958: N/A 
TAGS: SNAR SR
SUBJECT: Serbia: 2008-2009 International Narcotics Control Strategy 
Report (INCSR) Part I: Drugs and Chemical Control 
 
REF: STATE 100992 
 
¶I. Summary 
 
The Republic of Serbia is a major transit country for narcotics and 
other drugs along the Balkan smuggling corridor from Turkey to 
Central and Western Europe.  In 2008, Serbia took measures to 
improve its capacity to combat drug trafficking through new laws and 
law enforcement initiatives that tightened the regulations on 
narcotics, corruption, and organized crime, and included legislation 
authorizing asset seizure.  Serbia's drug laws are adequate, but 
strategic coordination among law enforcement and judicial bodies is 
problematic.  While Serbia realized record-setting successes with 
drug interdictions and seizures, organized crime groups still 
exploited Serbia's inadequate border controls to transfer heroin, 
cocaine, marijuana, and synthetic drugs.  A small amount of smuggled 
narcotics remains in Serbia for domestic consumption.  As 
Yugoslavia's successor state, the Republic of Serbia is party to the 
1988 UN Drug Convention. 
 
II. Status of Country 
 
Serbia is primarily a transit country for the movement of narcotics, 
although law enforcement recently uncovered two synthetic narcotics 
labs near Belgrade.  Serbia's porous borders make the country 
attractive for transit.  Heroin and marijuana are the most prevalent 
narcotics, transported from Central Asia along the Balkan Route. 
There is also an increase in cocaine from Central Asia through the 
Balkan route, according to the Customs Administration Enforcement 
Directorate.  Increasingly, Serbian organized crime groups are 
smuggling drugs from South America directly to Western Europe, 
bypassing Serbia, according to the Interior Ministry's Drug 
Smuggling Suppression Department. 
The Serbian government estimates that relatively small amounts of 
narcotics remain in the country for domestic consumption. 
 
III. Country Actions against Drugs in 2008 
 
Policy Initiatives:  Serbia's Parliament passed a set of laws to 
enhance law enforcement's efforts to combat narcotics smuggling, 
organized crime, and corruption in October 2008.  The package of 
laws includes a law to regulate immigration and movement of people 
through the country, an asset seizure law, and a law creating a new 
Anticorruption Agency.  The Finance Ministry is drafting a Customs 
Service Law to reorganize the Customs Administration, provide 
clearer links to law enforcement agencies and prosecutors, and 
enable Customs officers involved in investigations to testify in 
court.  (Currently Customs does not have law enforcement authority 
and cannot testify in court or continue investigations after drug 
seizures.)  The Justice Ministry is drafting a new Criminal 
Procedure Code that would enable prosecutor-led investigations, plea 
bargaining, and the use of special investigative techniques such as 
wire tapping.  The government has developed an Integrated Border 
Management Initiative, to improve coordination among the agencies 
involved in border control.  There is as yet no central oversight of 
the initiative, but individual agencies have begun implementation. 
 
 
Law Enforcement Efforts and Accomplishments:  A number of law 
enforcement agencies are responsible for combating drug-related 
crimes, including the Interior Ministry's Drug Smuggling Suppression 
Department, the Finance Ministry's Customs Administration, the 
Interior Ministry's Border Police, and the Interior Ministry's Drug 
Addiction Suppression Department.  While these agencies report 
generally good operational cooperation, there is no government-wide 
coordinating body that addresses law enforcement efforts. 
 
The Drug Smuggling Department continues to develop a database for 
crimes, arrests, and seizures related to heroin, cocaine, marijuana, 
synthetic drugs, and chemical precursors. 
 
Officers in the Interior Ministry participate in workshops organized 
by the OSCE, the Southeast Europe Cooperative Initiative's (SECI) 
Center for Combating Trans-border Crime, the UN Office on Drugs and 
Crime (UNODC), the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug 
Addiction, and other international organizations.  Serbia hosts law 
enforcement liaison officers from Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Italy, 
Australia, and other countries in the region.  The Interior Ministry 
conducts joint investigations with Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovenia, and 
Croatia and provides intelligence to Western European countries, 
which aids in seizures in those countries.  The Customs 
Administration participates in regional exercises.  Customs officers 
participate in OSCE train the trainer courses, and the Customs 
Administration recently developed a new specialized 
counter-narcotics course for customs officers. 
 
BELGRADE 00001139  002 OF 003 
 
 
 
Serbia interdicted a record amount of narcotics in 2008.  The 
Customs Administration seized approximately twice as much heroin and 
cocaine from January to July 2008 compared with the same period in 
¶2007.  Law enforcement seized 14.4 kg of heroin at the Merdare 
border crossing with Kosovo in November 2008.  In October 2008, law 
enforcement seized 265 kg of marijuana at the Montenegro border, 
Serbia's biggest marijuana seizure in the past decade.  The Drug 
Smuggling Suppression Department shut down two amphetamine labs 
located near Belgrade, in December 2007 and March 2008. 
 
From January to June 2008, the Drug Smuggling Suppression Department 
and Customs Administration Law Enforcement Directorate made 3,379 
drug seizures, including 410 kg of marijuana, 114 kg of heroin, 9.5 
kg of cocaine, 1,006 tablets of Ecstasy, 45,976 other narcotic 
tablets, and small amounts of other drugs.  The Interior Ministry 
reports that all Interior Ministry agencies made 2,043 seizures from 
July to October 2008, including 850.7 kg of marijuana, 60.7 kg of 
heroin, 750 grams of cocaine, 650 grams of other drugs, and 6,939 
tablets.  According to the Customs Administration, the price of 
heroin on the street remains the same this year, suggesting that 
these seizures are not affecting domestic availability. 
 
Police arrested high level organizers in both synthetic lab cases. 
All but one of the organizers, a foreign national who remains at 
large, remain in detention while the trial is underway in the 
December 2007 case, and the organizers in the March 2008 case are in 
investigative detention pending trial. 
 
Under Article 246 of the Criminal Code, Production, Distribution, 
and Possession of Narcotics, 2,978 individuals were tried and 2,811 
were convicted in 2007.  Arrests and prosecutions for 2008 are 
approximately the same as in recent years, according to the Justice 
Ministry.  Defendants are usually drug users, street dealers, or 
couriers.  Few major narcotics dealers ever appear in court.  Most 
prosecutions (nearly 80% in 2007) are for possession, which carries 
more lenient sentences, than for production or distribution (18% of 
cases in 2007).  Most sentences are light or suspended, or are for 
monetary fines or community service instead of jail time.  A more 
strategic approach to cooperation among agencies would improve 
investigations, according to the OSCE.  Law enforcement agencies 
believe that pending legislation enabling prosecutor-led 
investigations, to replace investigative judges, will improve trial 
outcomes. 
 
Corruption:  Corruption within Serbia's law enforcement agencies 
responsible for counter narcotics remains a problem, in large part 
due to low pay.  In a major corruption investigation in 2006, 3% of 
Customs enforcement officials were arrested and removed from their 
posts.  Customs has replaced those individuals with new officers. 
Parliament passed a law on October 23, 2008 establishing a new 
Anticorruption Agency, an independent state body that will implement 
the National Anticorruption Strategy. 
 
No evidence exists that the Serbian government encourages illicit 
production or distribution of narcotics, or actively launders 
proceeds from illegal drug transactions.  There is no evidence that 
any senior government official engages in, encourages, or 
facilitates the illicit production or distribution of drugs.  The 
Republic of Serbia is a party to the 2003 UN Convention against 
Corruption. 
 
Agreements and Treaties:  Serbia became the legal successor state to 
the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro on June 3, 2006.  All 
international treaties and agreements continue in force, including 
the 1988 UN Drug Convention, the 1961 UN Single Convention as 
amended by the 1972 Protocol, the 1971 UN Convention on Psychotropic 
Substances, and the UN Convention against Transnational Organized 
Crime, and its protocols against trafficking in persons and migrant 
smuggling.  Serbia has cooperative agreements with Slovenia, 
Croatia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina on issues relating to cross-border 
narcotics transfers.  Serbia signed a trilateral agreement with 
Romania and Bulgaria for counter-narcotics cooperation in 2008.  The 
1902 extradition treaty between the United States and the Kingdom of 
Serbia remains in force between the United States and Serbia. 
Serbian law prohibits extradition of Serbian citizens, except to the 
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. 
 
Drug Flow/Transit:  Serbia sits directly on the Balkan narcotics 
trafficking route.  The UNODC estimates that that over 80 tons of 
heroin travels along this route each year.  Heroin grown and 
processed in Afghanistan is smuggled through Turkey, Bulgaria, and 
Kosovo into Serbia, and onward into Western Europe.  The Customs 
Administration estimates that 5-10% of heroin stays in the country, 
but Serbia primarily serves as a transit point.  Large amounts of 
 
BELGRADE 00001139  003 OF 003 
 
 
marijuana and increasing amounts of cocaine from Central Asia also 
transit Serbia along the Balkan route.  The Customs Administration 
reports an increasing number of individuals traveling by air from 
Central Asia to Serbia via Eastern Europe carrying ingested packages 
of cocaine.  There is a decrease in cocaine from South America.  The 
Drug Smuggling Suppression Department believes that Serbian 
organized crime groups are bypassing Serbia and smuggling cocaine 
directly from South America to Western Europe.  There is an increase 
in trafficking of synthetic drugs and precursors. 
 
Domestic Programs (Demand Reduction):  The government conducts an 
addiction prevention program in primary schools, "Drug Zero, Life 
One," which includes lectures for students, parents, and teachers 
and referrals for families who seek help, but the program is not 
mandatory and individual schools choose whether to participate.  The 
Serbian government and the Belgrade city government conducted a 
Drug-Free Month campaign in June 2008 with the support of UNODC, 
UNICEF, WHO, the Serbian Red Cross, and Serbian anti-drug NGOs.  The 
National Network for the Fight against Drugs, a network of anti-drug 
NGOs, maintains a website with information about drug addiction and 
prevention.  A task force composed of the Ministries of Health, 
Education and Sport, Interior, and Justice is developing a National 
Strategy for the Fight against Drugs. 
 
There is a lack of accurate data on drug users.  The Public Health 
Bureau estimates there are approximately 60,000 drug users in 
Serbia.  The Institute for Addictive Diseases runs outpatient and 
inpatient drug rehabilitation programs.  There are no programs for 
reintegration of drug addicts. 
 
IV. U.S. Policy Initiatives and Programs 
 
Bilateral and Multilateral Cooperation:  The Serbian Government 
works closely with the United States and EU countries to reform and 
improve its law enforcement and judicial capacity.  The United 
States has provided extensive technical assistance and equipment 
donations to the police, customs services, border police, and 
judiciary.  Several USG agencies have programs that directly or 
indirectly support counter-narcotics activities in Serbia, including 
the Department of Justice (ICITAP), Department of Homeland Security, 
Department of Defense, Department of the Treasury, and Department of 
State.  The Departments of State and Justice (OPDAT) have also been 
instrumental in supporting the Special Courts for Organized Crime 
and War Crimes.  The programs are aimed at professionalizing the 
police and customs services, improving the ability of Serbia to 
prosecute corruption and organized crime, including money laundering 
and illicit trafficking, and increasing the ability of the judiciary 
to effectively address serious crime. 
 
The Road Ahead:  The United States will continue to support the 
efforts of Serbian law enforcement to combat narcotics smuggling in 
the region.  During the next year the United States would like to 
see additional progress in Serbian judicial and law enforcement 
reform, including tougher sentences for major narcotics dealers and 
more coordination among enforcement agencies and prosecutors to 
combat organized crime.  Serbia needs to improve its demand 
reduction programs.  The United States should continue to assist 
Serbia in improving the skill set and professionalism of its law 
enforcement agencies and encourage those reforms that will improve 
system-wide effectiveness.  The Customs Administration specified a 
need for small drug test kits for use in airports and additional 
train the trainer courses. 
 
MUNTER