In the continuous efforts to strengthen the regional cooperation in this field, the Southeast European Law Enforcement Center (SELEC) organized on 5th of April 2017, in Bucharest, Romania, the 7th meeting of the Environment and Nature Related Crimes Task Force with the participation of representatives from SELEC Member States and partners.
The meeting was opened by the Director General of SELEC, Mr. Toni Jakimovski, the Director for Operations of SELEC, Mr. Romulus Ungureanu and the Task Force Manager, Mr. Endre Hosszu.
The current situation and the activities developed in the past year in the framework of the Environment and Nature Related Crimes Task Force were presented by Mr. Ungureanu, who also mentioned that the most common environmental crimes encompassing organized criminality are the trafficking in illicit waste and the trafficking of endangered species.
The main objective of the meeting was to provide a platform for presenting the national situations, discuss regional approaches in preventing and countering environment and nature related crimes and exchanging experiences in this field.
During the meeting, Ms Manuela Nitu, Assistant Criminal Analyst, presented the key findings of the Evaluation Report of the Regional Operation ORION 3 targeting illegal hunting of protected bird species and trafficking of endangered and protected animals, operation carried out in October 2016 with the participation of all SELEC Member States.
