Every day, EU external borders are targeted by criminal
networks committing different types of illegal activities. Frontex regularly coordinates
international operations to respond to criminal phenomena and stop the crime at
the borders. One of such operations is known as Joint Action Days (JAD)
Finestra targeting cases of cross-border crime at the EU’s external borders.
The third edition of JAD – Finestra 3 – took
place between 6 and 17 November. It focused on detecting the smuggling of excisable
and illegal goods, from cigarettes and raw tobacco to vaping and heated
alternatives of the conventional nicotine products. The results yielded
detection of impressive quantities of such products.
The Finestra 3 operation was led by Romania and co-led by
Lithuania and Frontex. It aimed at reinforcing cooperation with the Western
Balkan and Eastern Partnership countries in the area of border management and
cross-border crime detection.
In addition to the detection of the illegal
products, the participating officers identified and registered 202 illegal
border crossings, 261 refusals of entry, and 17 cases of document fraud. Also,
the cooperation between Frontex border guards, national border guards, customs
and law enforcement resulted in the recovery of three sniper rifles with
optical scopes and seven stolen motor vehicles.
Joint Action Days
Finestra 3 are part of the EMPACT operational action plan. They spotlighted the
efforts of the participating countries into prevention and detection of cases
of smuggling of cigarettes, raw tobacco, waterpipe tobacco, chewing tobacco,
vaping and heated alternatives to the conventional nicotine products.
Considerable support was provided by Europol, Eurojust, OLAF, Interpol and
SELEC. Ad-hoc inclusion of Hungary and Slovakia significantly facilitated the
control of risk consignments.
EU countries: Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia,
Czechia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania
Non-EU countries: Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro,
Serbia and Ukraine
