An expert group including police officials of Western Balkans and EU countries at a one-day workshop in Skopje will discuss ways to tackle illegal arms trafficking as the government i.e. the interior ministry of Macedonia are promoters of this initiative.

Speaking at the event, Interior Minister Gordana Jankuloska said she expected the initiative to improve the prevention, efficiency, operativity and cooperation in the fight against the smuggling of weapons.

"The Macedonian MoI's initiative stems from the region which in the past decades was known as an area that was not only a crossroad for international arms trafficking rings, but also oftentimes a region of origin and final destination of illegal weapons," Jankuloska stated adding that the issue of arms trafficking, manifested as a concrete threat to general security at a national and global level, required constant institutional and international engagement.

Gunrunning oftentimes is related to other kinds of crimes, including armed robberies, organized criminal gangs committing crimes of violence, terrorist acts, murders and so on, according to Mitko Cavkov - director of the Public Security Bureau.

He urged Western Balkan and EU countries to strengthen their strategic partnership in connection to arms trafficking and  hazardous substances as well as the cooperation between relevant police services in terms of exchanging information related to production, transportation and sale and seizure of illegal weapons from the beginning till the final destination.

The initiative was welcomed by Ole Drost, a representative of the Danish police forces, who said that cooperation could be boosted by discussing and sharing experience regarding arms trafficking. "Today's workshop of the expert group is a crucial step forward in the combat against illegal arms trade," he noted.

According to statistics, last year 206 crimes related to arms trafficking were discovered. Charges were filed against 237 perpetrators and 185 types of weapons and almost 11 thousand pieces of ammunition as well as 19 packages of explosives were seized and confiscated.