Types of Crime and Investigations

Narcotic Drugs

When it comes to illegal narcotic drugs, Austria is a hub of consumption, transit, and trade and as such the seat basis of various offender groups and distribution networks. In general, criminal activities involving narcotic drugs are influenced by five factors.

• The Balkan route along which Austria is situated is used for smuggling heroin and opiate products from Afghanistan to Europe, but also for smuggling drug precursors from Europe to Central Asia. 
• Vienna International Airport via which cocaine is imported illegally from South American countries
• Neighbouring countries where methamphetamine is produced as well as other European countries
• The production and smuggling of cannabis products
• This also holds true for illegal and psychoactive substances offered increasingly through the internet and darknet.

Due to its geographical position along the Balkan route, Austria is of special importance in the fight against international organised drug-related crime. In addition to being used as a transit country and trading hub for illegal drugs, Austria is also home to various multinational offender groups and is thus under constant pressure to effectively fight drug-related crime.

Drug trafficking is experiencing a boom on the internet and darknet. The fact that illegal drugs can be ordered online has prompted law enforcement agencies to shift their approach towards a ”multi-agency principle“. In particular, the dispatch of illegal drugs by mail presents a major challenge to the police, as their legal possibilities are restricted. A special task force of Criminal Intelligence Service Austria has taken over these investigations. Irrespective of this development, the open street trade will have to be monitored more in future. Regardless of new scenarios, illegal drugs continue to be trafficked through traditional routes along the Balkan route and via Vienna International Airport.

Criminal Intelligence Service Austria also has a strong commitment to fighting drug-related crime.

The two brochures on the EU projects ”Drug Policing Balkan“ and ”Drug Policing Balkan Advanced 2013-2014“ review the successful work in the two Western Balkan countries.

In 2015, Criminal Intelligence Service Austria and Germany launched a project dedicated to the international fight against drug trafficking on the darknet. You will find more information on this project in the brochure: “Joint investigation to combat drug trafficking via the virtual market (darknet) within and also into the EU”.

In the course of the project "Joint investigation to fight trafficking in drugs and firearms with the main focus on international airports within and also into the EU”, Austria and its partner countries Kosovo (under UNSCR 1244) and the Czech Republic committed themselves to fighting the illegal trade in drugs and weapons focusing mainly on international airports. The project was started in December 2016 and lasted two years.

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