New structure established to fight against organized crime

In order to reinforce the fight against organized crime it was essential to reorganize the specialized units of the public prosecutor’s office responsible for combating serious crime. The Amendment of 29 March 2007 to the Act on the Public Prosecutor’s Office was needed to set up a new structure.

New structure is composed of the centralized system of units situated in the highest-ranking public prosecutor’s office. All of the units are subordinated to the Director of the Organized Crime Office in the National Public Prosecutor’s Office. The centralized organization should ensure independence from the heads of lower-ranking public prosecutor’s offices.

The Organized Crime Office as a part of the National Public Prosecutor’s Office is composed of eleven Local Departments located in the cities being seats of the Appellate Public Prosecutor’s Offices.

The principal competences of the Organized Crime Office are as follows:

-          carrying out and supervising investigations and prosecutions concerning serious crime: terrorism, organized crime, against life and health, corruption, laundering of the proceeds of crime, forgery of means of payment, trafficking and dealing in narcotic drugs, illicit turnover of assets, fiscal and insurance offences and in other cases handed over by the National Public Prosecutor

-          gathering and analyzing of information on organized crime

-          international cooperation with the national correspondent of Eurojust and the representatives of the international and supranational organizations in combating terrorism and transnational organized crime.

Additionally, with a view to rationalize the structure, on level of the Regional Public Prosecutor’s Offices may be created two departments specialized in combating serious crime: 1. The Criminal Investigation Department and 2. The Economic Crime Department.