OPERATION “LEASE CAR II” – a joint operation in the field of vehicle crime

Between 29th – 31st of October 2013, the Operation «Lease Car II» was carried out with the participation of all Members States of SELEC. EUBAM, Slovakia and Ukraine also joined the operation while GIE ARGOS provided technical assistance by deploying expert teams to some of the participating countries.

The main purposes of the operation were to hinder the activity of stolen vehicle traffickers, as well as the trans-border activity of the perpetrators („leasing fraud”, „duplication”) and to start criminal proceedings against them for vehicle-related crimes (theft, fraud, receiving etc.). Beside the mentioned goals, the regional operation will serve as a tool for gathering intelligence regarding possible links of individuals and/or companies to criminal activities. The decision to implement the operation in the second part of October 2013 was taken at the 10th Meeting of the Stolen Vehicles Task Force, held on 10th of April 2013, in Bucharest/ Romania.

Mr. Gabor Liczkai, Hungarian Police Liaison Officer and coordinator of the mentioned above Task Force, emphasized that “the information exchanged during the Operation «Lease Car II» was intensive, this also proving the active involvement of the participating countries and organization. Thousands of checks, many seizures, detections of stolen vehicles or vehicle parts were reported during the operation”.

Referring to this kind of criminal activity, Mr. Cristian Duta, Director for Operations of SELEC, underlined that all actions organized by the Center in this area are meant to fight the phenomenon of trafficking of stolen vehicles, to discover the frauds in due time and to dismantle the organized crime groups.