Summary of the report for 2009 of the Central Bureau of Investigation in Poland

Summary of the report for 2009 of the Central Bureau of Investigation in Poland

Extortions and exactions are becoming the past.  Polish gangs now rely mostly on drugs and financial frauds, namely tax swindling and illegal trade of cigarettes and alcohol.  They invest money obtained in this way in real estate, buy works of art and aircrafts - as results from the report of the Central Bureau of Investigation.  

Last year the police officers from CBŚ worked out 500 criminal groups: 167 of them dealt with drugs and 164 - with various kinds of economic crimes.  107 were criminal gangs (e.g. specialized in car stealing, heavy truck robberies), and 62 were of multi-crime nature.   In 2009 CBŚ successfully dealt with 155 gangs in total - both Polish and international ones, arresting nearly 3460 people.

Gangsters are weaker

- There are many gangs, but they are definitely organized differently than those operating in the 1990s (e.g. the gang of Pruszków - ed.). They have different structure and they are also definitely weaker - says chief police commandant, Andrzej Matejuk.   He also adds that weakening of gangs is associated with solutions related to the crown witness, incognito witness and operational techniques which may be used by police officers, introduced in the 1990s and at the beginning of the year 2000.  An important thing - according to Matejuk - was also establishment of the Central Bureau of Investigation in 2000.  - In the 1990s several crime groups wanted to rule in Poland.  They were numerous, they were developing in a very organized way - e.g. the group of Pruszków, Szczecin, Krakowiak or Czarny.  These were gangs with a strongly defined hierarchy.  Now, the groups have from several to a dozen or so members - explains the commandant.   And he emphasizes that the nature of gang activities has also changed.  - In the 1990s and between 2000 and 2007 these were mainly crime and drug activities, right now the main problems seem to be drugs and corporate crimes.  Since these are the fields that gangs may best profit from - says Matejuk.   

Swindling and purchases for "poles"

The report of CBŚ states, among others, that in 2009 CBŚ liquidated two illegal factories of cigarettes in Poland.  Police officers secured also more than 55 million pieces of fake cigarettes and more than 79 000 litres of spirit - for illegal production of alcohol.   Polish criminals - according to the authors of the report - are more and more often involved in gambling and the so-called carousel crimes, using, e.g. the principle of zero rate VAT in the case of intra-community delivery of goods.  This procedure usually involves several companies, often fictitious ones.   Money is swindled, e.g. by trading small but expensive products - cell phones or car accessories.  First, one of them, registered e.g. in Germany, by applying 0 percent rate, sells goods to a Polish company - usually registered for the so-called "pole", that is a dummy person.  This person sells it with loss to another Polish company, without paying tax at the same time (the so-called disappearing taxpayer), and the latter resells it again to the company from Germany.  At the same time, VAT is returned (thanks to such a right resulting from export of goods from the country) and swindled in this way.   The goods may also not exist and the criminals trade only forged invoices.

- Criminal groups organize a net of "poles".  These persons, for small money, sell them their IDs or, as demanded by the gangs, establish companies, for which one swindles, e.g. credits or through which one conducts various kinds of transactions - explains Matejuk.  He also adds that a frequent procedure is to swindle money from accounts by forging pay cards.   

Drug trade is different

The image of drug crimes is also changing. - Once Poland was infamous in Europe for being the centre of production of synthetic drugs - amphetamine.  Now, the criminals have noticed higher demand on the market for natural drugs, so many groups deal with cultivation of cannabis - says Matejuk.  The data of CBŚ state that the demand for cocaine has increased in Poland.  Last year police officers took over more than 113 kg of cocaine and more than 606 kg of marihuana, as well as 280.4 kg of amphetamine and more than 7 kg of heroine in total.  The Bureau liquidated also 33 plantations of cannabis and 8 laboratories of synthetic drugs.   Money "earned" this way are invested by gangs both in Poland and abroad.  They invest in real estate, securities, spend money also on luxury cars, yachts, works of art and even aircrafts.  Sometimes the money is also used in legal transactions.   In Poland there are also international criminal groups, but connected with local gangs.  - They deal mainly with economic crime, e.g. illegal production of cigarettes.  They include, first of all, citizens of the countries of the former USSR - explains the chief police commandant.

Full content of the report

Central Bureau of Investigation has already been operating for 10 years, effectively combating criminal, economic and drug crimes, often of international nature.  The tasks of this Bureau of the National Police Headquarters include also identification and combating criminal terror and terrorism.  The basic tasks of CBŚ are, first of all, to eliminate criminal groups operating in Poland, and second of all, to prevent recovery of groups eliminated in the past, whose members, sometimes even after many years, after leaving penitentiary facilities, attempt to return to the path of crime.

Effective struggle with organized crime means proper structures, professionals and excellent identification.  All of that brought specific, measurable process effects of the work of CBŚ in 2009.  In total, 155 Polish and international criminal groups were eliminated and nearly 3459 people were arrested.  15 572 criminal charges were pressed against 5141 persons, including:

-         1657 persons – for participation in an organized criminal group (1676 charges),

-         179 persons – for leading a criminal group (184 charges).

The officers were interested in 5118 persons operating in 500 criminal groups – including 448 persons in Polish groups.  402 leaders of criminal groups were identified.  First of all, one focused on combating drug and economic groups, as these two crime trends have superseded criminal ones over the past few years. And so, in 2009, CBŚ was interested in 167 drug groups, 164 economic groups, 107 criminal groups and 62 groups of multi-crime nature.

What strikes criminals very severely, is depriving them of income and property obtained from breaking the law.  Last year CBŚ secured the property worth almost 172 million PLN in total and recovered the property worth more than 28 million PLN. It was almost 33% of property secured by units nationwide.

An important area of activities of CBŚ is combating drug crime.  In the contemporary world there is no country without drugs and the role of the police is to limit availability, production, trade and distribution of this kind of substances.  Consistently fighting drug crimes, the officers of CBŚ have eliminated 8 laboratories of synthetic drugs and 33 plantations of cannabis.  In total, they took over from criminals more than 917 kg of drugs, including:

-         280.4 kg of amphetamine,

-         6.7 kg of hashish,

-         7.1 kg of heroine,

-         113.7 kg of cocaine,

-         606.6 kg of marihuana,

-         more than 144.500 pieces of ecstasy,

-         80 litres of methyl benzyl ketone.

As it has been mentioned above, the second area involving police officers of CBŚ is combating organized economic crime.  This regards, first of all:

-         combating crime groups operating in the sector of tobacco products,

-         combating organized criminal groups, whose operations are aimed at property interests of the State Treasury under tax frauds,

-         combating crimes on the capital market,

-         money laundering,

-         combating organized crime associated with liquid fuel trade,

-         combating organized crime associated with alcohol trade,

-         irregularities on the market of gambling machines.

It is estimated that a large part of illegal funds comes from crimes committed in financial-commercial trade, at the same time violating tax regulations: VAT and excise frauds, as well as income tax frauds, but to a lesser extent.  Illegally obtained financial measures are invested both in Poland and abroad.  They are spent, among others, on the purchase of real estate, securities, luxury vehicles, yachts, aircrafts, works of art, etc. and used in legal business projects.

In 2009 the officers of CBŚ eliminated two illegal factories of cigarettes.  Police officers secured more than 55 million pieces of cigarettes and more than 34 tons of tobacco cut rag from smuggling and liquidated, illegally operating factories.  They also secured more than 79 000 litres of spirit.

One observes an increased number of crimes using diversity of VAT rates in economic trade between the countries of the EU, as well as the countries from outside the European Union, the so-called "carousel crimes", which cause huge budget losses.  The most important types of tax frauds include frauds defined as: "disappearing taxpayer", "tax carrousel".

One of the new areas of interest of CBŚ is the market of low winnings gambling machines.  Common access to these gambling machines, enabling to play on gas stations, in pubs, cafes or housing estate stores, has resulted in prosperity of the so-called low gambling market.

Under one of the cases conducted by CBŚ KGP, nearly 300 gambling machines have been secured across the whole country, which were registered as low winnings gambling machines.  Observed irregularities consisted in non-compliance with statutory restrictions in this type of games with regard to winnings (which must not be higher than 15 Euro) and a maximum rate for participation in one game (which must not be higher than 0.07 Euro).

Another equally important area of CBŚ operations is combating people trade and smuggling.  As regards people trade in 2009, the number of events concerning this kind of crime had slightly decreased as compared to 2008.  In the reporting period 14 cases were underway (16 - in 2008), in the course of which 43 charges were presented (226 - in 2008) to 11 suspects (105 - in 2008).  Noticeable decrease in the number of charges and the number of suspects in people trade cases in 2009 proves neutralization of many criminal groups by CBŚ KGP in the period 2007 – 2008. Illegal market of sexual services is still functioning in a similar way – it benefits from people trade.  It is fostered by economic and political differences between poorly developed countries of Eastern Europe and Asia and the countries of Western Europe.

In 2009 a new system of combating money forgeries was developed in the Republic of Poland. The Team for Combating Money Forgeries was established in CBŚ.  As a result of introduced system solutions, such as national and international coordination related to combating money forgeries, and as a result of international exchange of criminal information, identification of criminal environments related to forgeries of payment measures significantly improved in 2009.  The result of this is protection against introducing to the circulation significant quantities of false Polish banknotes as well as Euro banknotes, greater than reported by the statistics of the National Bank of Poland in the previous year (100 PLN banknotes - 60% increase, false Euro currency - 110 % increase).  One should emphasize that false money was secured at the stage of production, before its distribution and introduction to circulation.

The officers of CBŚ perform also tasks regarding combating criminal terror threats, terrorist threats as well as crimes with the use of explosives.  CBŚ is a unit coordinating operational-reconnaissance activities of the Police units nationwide, as regards collection and verification of information about persons and events directly or indirectly associated with these hazards.

In 2009 one recorded 42 cases of explosions caused by the use of explosive materials and devices, 14 of which had the features of criminal terror acts.  20 explosive devices were disclosed under various buildings and rendered safe.  One also disclosed 7 fake explosives.  11 people died as a result of explosions.  In 4 cases death was caused by manipulation at blinds and duds, in 5 cases - by construction of explosive devices, in 2 cases – by suicide actions.  23 persons were injured in explosions (2 – attacks, 5 – detonation attempts, 11 – manufacturing and recovery of explosive materials, 2 – construction of explosive devices, 3 – unfortunate coincidences).  382 people suspected of criminal actions connected with explosive materials and devices were arrested.

Police officers of CBŚ secured more than 8.7 tons of various kinds of explosive materials (most of it was TNT – almost 8.5 tons) and 29 self-acting explosive devices.  They also secured, among others, 847 pcs. of grenades, almost 5 000 fuses, detonators, primer caps and more than 41.5 kg of black powder.

1392 various kinds of blinds and duds were taken from criminals as well as 50.700 pcs. of other ammunition, which could be used for recovery of explosive materials.  They also secured 427 pieces of firearms.

One recorded 639 false notices of planting explosive devices - in more than 41% cases the perpetrators were arrested (266 persons).