POLICE claim to have reduced the number of organised criminal gangs operating on Slovak territory from 52 at the end of 1998 to 26 at the end of 2001, and to have radically cut the number of bombings from their 1995 high.
An Interior Ministry report published at the beginning of January states that the conditions for crimes committed by these groups, largely in tax and economic spheres, were enabled by the ongoing economic transformation in the post-communist country.
The report also states that organised crime groups are active in the smuggling of migrants across borders, with most of this activity taking place the Slovakia-Ukraine border in the east of the country.
