Internal Affairs minister Catalin Predoiu said on Monday that success in the fight against drug trafficking cannot be achieved through political statements alone, and that parties must „seriously consider” whether or not to commit to to the modernisation of internal law enforcement.
„Success in the fight against drug trafficking cannot be achieved by political statements alone, only by legislative initiatives or even bills that become laws, more or less redundant, which in turn give rise to other well-meaning statements. First of all, we must understand that we are dealing with a phenomenon that can only be successfully combated nationally and regionally through regional and global cooperation. We are talking about an integrated global market, globally coordinated by organised crime, worth tens of billions of euros, according to some estimates: more than 30 billion euros annually. A market that has gripped some 400 million citizens around the globe, a market that can only be successfully tackled through integration, at least that is the conclusion of the nations represented at the United Nations, that is the conclusion we heard two weeks ago at a major gathering devoted to this scourge and that is why, not by chance, the United States has initiated a great coalition against synthetic drugs and synthetic drug precursors, which represent the greatest threat in the period immediately ahead,” said minister Predoiu at the event celebrating 202 years of documentary evidence of the Romanian Police.
„Ten years ago, president Iohannis had an initiative to coagulate a political pact for defence, to guarantee the allocation of a constant, high budget for defence, and it was a positive initiative, one of the first NATO members, that showed results. In parallel, in the years to come, I believe that all parties in Romania must seriously consider whether or not to commit themselves to the modernisation of the internal law enforcement, in line with the challenges we face. Because just as the complicated political context naturally obliges us to be concerned with the defence of borders, we also need to strengthen the public order climate, respect for the law, and the strengthening of democracy, because we cannot allow young generations to be destroyed by drug use and crime of any kind. This can be done with prevention, but obviously also with combating those who put such phenomena into circulation,” Catalin Predoiu added.
AGERPRES
