Hungary crossroads of organized crime, police say

BUDAPEST, Hungary (Reuter) Hungary has become a European crossroads for
organized crime and the international police response to combat the upsurge
has been inadequate, a top Hungarian crimefighter said Tuesday.

``Hungary has become the crossroads of eastern and western (European)
criminals,'' Laszlo Tonnhauser, head of the Hungarian police's organized
crime unit told a threeday conference attended by police chiefs from 14
countries.

``Inefficient states and international relations hinder our job,'' he said.

The conference, attended by highranking police officers from Europe, the
United States, South Africa, Israel, Interpol and Europol, focused on the
spread of organized crime from the former Soviet Union through Europe.

The Russian delegation cancelled its appearance at the last minute.

Tonnhauser said that although organized crime first appeared in Hungary in
the late 1970s, the presence of international criminals is a relatively new
phenomenon.

``Ethnic criminal groups appeared in Hungary after the mass privatisation
started in 198990,'' Tonnhauser said.

Apart from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), organized crime was
also inported into Hungary from South America, Turkey, Italy, Nigeria and
Kosovo, in Serbia, he said.

Hungary's Minister of the Interior Gabor Kuncze said the spread of criminals
from the former Soviet Union had caught Europe unguarded.

He added that Hungary, earlier a transit station for drugs trafficking, car
theft and arms smuggling was increasingly becoming a drugs consumer itself.