Prague, Feb 9 (CTK) – The Czech police centre for organised crime (NCOZ) seized property worth 2.6 billion crowns from criminals in 2017, its head Michal Mazanek told CTK on Friday.
In 2016, the NCOZ seized property worth about six billion crowns.
Mazanek said the lower volume of property that the police seize is a result of improved controlling mechanisms, such as ledger statements and the electronic registration of sales, thanks to which the state seized the property even before a crime is investigated.
Moreover, the Czech police seized property worth 9.9 billion crowns in total in 2016, which has been the record high volume since the establishment of the independent Czech Republic in 1993, he said.
The Tax Cobra unit that started operating in 2014 is part of the NCOZ. It focuses on large tax fraud and it prevented tax evasion of 1.4 billion crowns last year.
The NCOZ had 811 members at the end of last year and it lacked 64 officers. From its establishment in mid-2016, 62 NCOZ officers left the police and 50 moved to other police bodies or security forces, while 128 new police officers were hired.
In mid-2016, two special units, the corruption police and the organised crime police, merged to form the NCOZ. Opponents of the merger claimed that the rather hasty reshuffle was motivated by the effort to sweep sensitive cases under the carpet and get all investigation under control of the police top management. They also said experienced police officers would leave due to the merger.
Mazanek said NCOZ detectives dealt with 730 cases, including 228 new ones, last year.
He said the centre should deal with fewer cases to be able to fully focus on the most difficult and serious ones. The detectives are overburdened now, he added.
On average, the NCOZ dealt with more cases than the corruption unit and the organised crime unit in the past when they operated separately, Mazanek said.
He said 91 percent of the cases resulted in state attorneys charging suspects.
The NCOZ is divided in five sections – organised crime, corruption, terrorism and extremism, financial crime and cyber crime.
