Funding Mechanisms

Countering Trafficking in Firearms, their parts and ammunition in Express Courier and Postal Parcels: Project HERMES, Phase 1

Implementing period: February 2023 - December 2023

Budget: US$ 800,129

The project, under the implementation of UNODC's Global Firearms Programme (GFP), supported the six Western Balkans (WB) jurisdictions in enhancing the regulatory framework and capacities to prevent and counter trafficking in firearms, their parts and components, and ammunition in express courier and postal parcels. The project Hermes was developed based on GFP’s methodology to address these threats and the experience in implementing relevant project activities in BiH and Ukraine. The project aimed to improve the regulatory framework for counter-trafficking through the development of specific standard operating procedures and memoranda of understanding, and thus advance practice within customs administrations, designated postal operators, postal services regulators, and law enforcement services. In addition, the project supported the customization and harmonization of procedures across the region by organizing regional meetings and study visits to support information exchange on good practices. The project also included the procurement of detection equipment for the Albanian Customs Administration to address identified gap and improve respective capabilities in line with project’s objective.

Overall achievements:

  • Improved regulatory framework in the Western Balkans for countering trafficking in firearms, their parts, components, ammunition, and explosives via postal shipments.
    • Eight Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) were developed and signed between the customs authorities and designated postal operators in the Western Balkans region (3 MoUs in BiH between Customs and the 3 DPOs, 1 in Albania, 1 in Kosovo, 1 in Montenegro, 1 in Serbia, and 1 in North Macedonia). 10 SOPs were developed and seven signed by the end of the project (3 are pending in Albania and Serbia[1]). To this end, UNODC organized 12 workshops, gathering 116 representatives of customs and postal operators from the region (25 women and 91 men), including the active participation of and collaboration with international bodies like GIZ, UPU, EMPACT Firearms, and various customs and police services. The jurisdictions established working groups for cooperation between customs and DPOs that reviewed the existing regulation frameworks, and with UNODC’s support, they prepared drafts of MoUs and SOPs that were subsequently finalized and approved.
    • The UNODC in cooperation with the French Customs organized in May 2023 a study visit for all WB jurisdictions to Charles de Gaulle Airport, France (14 officials, 1 woman and 13 men). The WB experts learned from the good practice of the French authorities, they received information about the work organization of the French Customs, La Poste, and express courier companies and the application of risk analysis to identify parcels containing prohibited goods. The participants also observed the work of their French counterparts in the postal depots and the teamwork between French Customs and La Poste on inspecting suspicious parcels.
    • Two sub-regional meetings that ensued in June 2023 enabled debriefing with participants of the study visit to CDG Airport and facilitated the progress review in drafting SOPs and MoUs. The meetings gathered 53 officials (13 women, 40 men) in total, with the meeting in Pristina (for Kosovo, Albania, and North Macedonia) involving 24 officials (5 women and 19 men) and the meeting in Sarajevo (for BiH, Montenegro, and Serbia) involving 29 officials (8 women and 21 men). The meetings included representatives of the French Customs and EMPACT Firearms, and ensured exchange of good practice, challenges and the aspects of harmonization of approaches towards tackling firearms trafficking in postal parcels. This helped identification of further areas of cooperation with the French Customs and within Operation Armstrong regarding the detection of firearms in postal parcels, which will be pursued in the future.
       
  • Enhanced technical capacities of the Albanian Customs Administration to detect firearms their part, components, ammunition, and explosives via postal shipments
    • The Albanian Customs Administration was equipped with a specialized equipment, the Smiths Detection HazMatID Elite, and with 10 hand-held metal detectors, and 3 laptops. In December 2023, UNODC delivered specialized training on the use of the HazmatID Elite detector for 4 Albanian officials (4 men) in the UNODC Laboratory in Vienna. The equipment is expected to improve the effectiveness of postal security by enabling more accurate detection of explosives and metal firearms components.
       

UNODC plans to further build upon the achieved progress and results in the upcoming period, through the project’s next phase.

The project contributed to Roadmap Goals 2 and 3 and key performance indicators 3, 4, 5, 6 and 9 of the Roadmap for a sustainable solution to the illegal possession, misuse and trafficking of Small Arms and Light Weapons and their ammunition in the Western Balkans.
 

[1] In the course of 2024, the SOPs for Customs and DPO in Serbia got signed. The SOPs in Albania (2, one for Customs and one for DPO) remain pending signature.