The long-term experience of criminological practice has revealed that organised groups involved in drug crime compress their shipments with various metallic compression devices when shipping larger volumes of drugs. Seizing the compressed drug shipments is a daily routine of police drug units. By the ability of identifying whether diverse drug shipments were compressed with the same device, specialised Police units will be able to find the type of machine and the source territory where it was compressed, i.e. where an important part of the whole organised group of criminals is located.

The goal of the project is to improve security and the rule of law in the Czech Republic through increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the fight against international drug trafficking thanks to a better identification of the origin and the routes of compressed drug deliveries and shipments. The specific objectives of the project are improving the currently used system of detection of mechanoscopic traces on the surface of the compressed drug shipments, providing the existing system with more advanced technological equipment (hardware and software upgrading) and through starting a database which could be included into the already existing European Drug Profiling System (EDPS) and the Europol Synthetic Drugs Database (ESDDS).

• Police of the Czech Republic, the National Drug Headquarters (NDH)

(i): organisation of an international coordinating conference; (ii): purchase of standard hardware and software and development of special software to start the routine operation of the new RELIEF system, through two public tenders; (iii): five business trips abroad to present the Relief system and its application in the international environment; (iv): business trip to the Hague with the aim of preparing the incorporation of the system into the Europol Synthetic Drugs Database and the European Drug Profiling System and (v): organisation of an international conference to present the developed RELIEF system and recommend its inclusion in the systems of other participating countries.

Erreichte Resultate:  

• More accurate identification of drugs shipments has been made possible with highly sophisticated software for automated search and improved and continuously filled in database of mechanoscopic traces of drugs.
• A mobile forensic station improved efficiency of operations by capture of drug shipment.
• Relief method and database presented internationaly through international conferences, presentation to others police units and Interpol, hosting of foreign police experts in the Czech Republic.
• International police cooperation in the field of organized drug traffic is strenghtened: 22 countries already signed in to the database and are providing necessary information about seized shipments of drugs.
• Relief is recognized as an effective tool and Interpol is planning to take over the Relief database, making it a new standard tool for combating drug trafficking worldwide.

Phase 1 01.06.2012 - 31.12.2016   (Completed)