Prague, Dec 12 (CTK) – The Czech police and Interpol experts checked more than 100,000 passengers at the Prague international airport within an exercise to reveal suspicious people, luggage and cargo in late November, police headquarters spokeswoman Ivana Nguyenova said in a press release on Tuesday.
The officers revealed two shortcomings concerning transported luggage.
The exercise held during the airport’s regular operation focused on the fight with international illegal trading and smuggling of radioactive material.
“One case concerned a natural radiation of a transported item and the other was a mistake in the declaring of transported goods. The respective security standards were not violated in any of the cases,” Nguyenova said.
The aim of the police operation dubbed Conduit was to share experience with U.S. and Interpol experts.
Several police units took part in the exercise, primarily the National Centre against Organised Crime (NCOZ), the Prague-Ruzyne immigration office, the customs authority and experts from the National Radiation Protection Institute (NRPI) . Besides, Slovak police officers were invited as observers.
The training was coordinated by the Interpol section for prevention of terrorism using radioactive material. The U.S. Department of Energy supported it financially.
Police from other Interpol member states undergo the same training.
Since the beginning of this year, the Czech police have uncovered more than 6,100 wanted persons and items from the international police databases.
Foreign experts appreciated that the police had used the Interpol database and the Schengen Information System systematically, which helped them seek and detain internationally wanted persons as well as stolen and abused travel documents.
