Government steps up measures to fight distribution of illegal drugs

There is one topic that we do not talk about and discuss enough. This is the topic of importation and distribution of prohibited drugs. It is a painful, important topic. It affects an enormous number of people and, unfortunately, in recent years no significant success has been achieved against the illicit drugs distribution, Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov said at the beginning of the regular weekly Council of Ministers meeting on July 19.

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We also have a new reason to raise the issue - the distribution of a synthetic drug that is about 100 times more active than heroin. It is distributed by mixing it with other drugs and has already appeared in Bulgaria, after distribution in the United States and then in Western Europe. We have discussed with the Minister of Interior and from this week we are setting up a new coordination mechanism the focus of which will be the fight against importation, organised crime and drug distribution so that we can try to tackle this huge problem at the levels we currently see it in Bulgaria, Denkov added.

The focus will be on the big distributors and the idea of this coordination mechanism is to complement the work of the National Council on Narcotic Drugs. The main tasks will be under the coordination of the Ministry of Interior, the General Directorate for Combating Organised Crime, the Border Police, but also other services will be involved - the Ministry of Finance with the Customs Agency, SANS, the National Investigation Service, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health, again with a focus on prevention and fight against distribution.

"The Ministry of e-Government will also be involved, because you know that a large part of this market takes place in online trading. We will also invite the National Association of Municipalities as partners. We know that mayors, the organisation around municipal schools, the fight against addiction is also part of their duties," PM Denkov said.

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He praised the Ministry of Interior for the fact that over the past month almost every day information has been released about successful operations both in terms of migration and the fight against organised crime.

"I spoke to the minister a little while ago, only in the past twenty-four hours, 805 people have been stopped trying to cross the border with Turkey. So these are prevented migrants who have tried to enter our territory illegally and in the same 24 hours period, about 105 people have been detained on the territory of the country," Denkov added.