Within the period of 20 – 24 February 2023, in Montenegro, the Indirect Taxation Authority (ITA) of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), the Montenegrin Customs Administration and UNODC through its Global Firearms Programme (GFP), organized an exchange of experiences in the identification and assessing needs for detection of firearms, their parts and components, ammunition and explosives in Express Courier and postal parcels.
The representatives of ITA BiH provided on 20 February 2023 an initial overview of the HALT project on countering firearms in postal parcels to Montenegrin counterparts, including Customs, the State Postal Operator, the Ministry of Interior, Prosecutor’s Office and the Ministry of Economy, as well as to the representatives of the SALW Commission. UNODC GFP also shared its expertise on its work in BiH and identified good practices in the needs assessment and the implementation of project activities. In the following days, the ITA BiH and UNODC GFP experts visited the main points of entry and exit of parcels shipments in Montenegro, collected information, and conducted a joint exercise at a border crossing point between Montenegro and BiH with a private courier company.
The activity resulted in technical support and transfer of knowledge by ITA BiH and UNODC GFP, which will be embedded in a need assessment document. This activity is implemented with the financial support provided by Germany, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Norway through the Western Balkans SALW Control Roadmap Trust Fund, and supported by the European Union.