IN BRATISLAVA alone, a city of less than half a million, police know of 374 business people who are paying extortion money to organised 'protection' rackets, but who are afraid to cooperate with investigators because they fear retribution.
This statement was made on June 19 by police corps vice-president Jaroslav Spišiak, who was presenting the force's recent success in breaking up a gang of nine extortionists in north-eastern Slovakia's Kežmarok and Spišská Bela towns.