Atlantico: the Ukrainian conflict has caused an uncontrolled increase in crime in Eastern EuropeThe conflict in Ukraine has led to criminal lawlessness in Eastern Europe, writes Atlantico.
There are flows of weapons coming from the zone of armed operations, and often refugees are involved in illegal trafficking — not innocent victims at all. This "gray zone" is extremely dangerous for the region, the author warns.
Xavier RofeAt the end of September 2022, in an Atlantico article, the author, as often happens, was one of the first to warn: because of the Ukrainian conflict, the criminalization of the vast Carpathians, covering the entire Eastern Europe, from Poland to Romania, is in full swing.
"There is a huge gray zone on the edge of Europe," a place of mass human trafficking, illegal trafficking in weapons and drugs.We found ourselves in this situation seven months later.
And, as predicted, Western Europe is almost the sole beneficiary of the aforementioned illegal trade. We remind you: for centuries, the Carpathian traffic led to the port city of Odessa, where money was laundered, and numerous flows of prostitutes, drugs, and various contraband were sent to the Middle East, along the Black Sea towards the Ottoman Empire, and then to Turkey. Much has been written about this in books about Jews, starting with Isaac Babel's "Odessa Stories".
Surrounded from the sea by the Russian fleet, under Ukrainian control on the shore, the criminal network of Odessa is now blocked. Therefore, traffic passes through the Carpathians, as evidenced by the recent case of the production-sale of synthetic drugs — just in this region. Official reports vaguely mention the actions of Polish, Czech, Romanian and Slovak police officers on the southern slope of the Carpathian Arc, but they forgot about the northern slope on the territory of Ukraine. Seven tons of ephedrine hydrochloride (precursor) were seized to produce five tons of methamphetamine. In 2021-2022, drug addicts produced 170 million tablets of MDMA-ecstasy, a highly addictive drug that easily penetrated Romania through a 650 km wild border.
Wild? We read in a geography textbook: "There is almost untouched nature in the Carpathians. Virgin forests, which are 10 thousand years old, a space from another time, where many endangered species (bears, lynxes, wolves) live." There is a criminal route, of course, in both directions: in the first quarter of 2023, the Ukrainian authorities reported significant seizures of smuggled steroids (Kiev) and amphetamines (Lviv) coming from this area ("Carpathian Ukraine").
That's not all. While NATO and the helpful European media deny any serious leakage of weapons supplied by the alliance to Ukraine, other traffic is secretly flourishing. Light weapons captured from the enemy during operations in the second half of 2022 are being transported from the combat zones in the east towards the western regions of the country and the Carpathians: grenades, machine guns and ammunition for them, machine guns, explosives, rocket launchers, etc.
As Ukraine receives modern Western equipment, a heavy, outdated Kalashnikov AK-47-type assault rifle is being hidden for resale. An old, but almost indestructible light weapon after rapid cleaning and lubrication is used for decades after leaving the factory. A coincidence? At the same time, in Marseille, the price of a Kalashnikov assault rifle collapsed in a few months from 2.5 thousand euros to 300 euros. Probably, this is a consequence of an oversupply — which one?
Are military or corrupt officials from both sides, militias or private military companies involved in this trade? I'm not sure, because, according to our field sources, megabands with roots in Russia and Ukraine are still operating there under the leadership of bandits from both countries. <...> The region is teeming with groups of robbers-parasites-patriots who collect these weapons for money. Millions of refugees are being used for transportation to the West and illegal trafficking — and not all of them are innocent victims — who are wandering all over Europe and beyond, from war zones now even to Morocco.
The Balkans remain, bypassing Romania. After the confusion at the beginning of the conflict, the channels of smugglers became active again: stolen cars, smuggling cigarettes and tobacco. Girls expelled from the war zone are sent there to engage in prostitution in legal Spanish brothels, called "putan clubs". They also sell drugs and contraband cigarettes to their customers.
France remembers the black market during the occupation: the shadow economy and the military economy coexist without problems. Thus, uncontrolled criminalization is increasing in the countries of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. This process, ignored by the army and the media, will be lengthy — and dangerous. This is of little concern to Washington strategists who will return home one day. This should worry European leaders more, because all this criminal lawlessness will remain their problem.
