Operations with the use of test purchases and controlled deliveries are widely used by law enforcement agencies to solve crimes for which insufficient evidence has been collected, or there is no other way to identify the real organizers of illegal actions. From start to finish, they are conducted under the total supervision of the police or special services.
In accordance with the Vienna Convention
For a long time, such a thing as controlled delivery in the Russian Federation, and before that in the Soviet Union, did not exist. In many ways, it was included in the list of activities of law enforcement officers of the Russian Federation thanks to the Vienna Convention. The document was developed with the aim of regulating a single form of interaction between the special services of different countries to solve crimes in which several countries can be involved at the same time.
It all started with curbing the drug trade. In 1988, in Vienna, countries belonging to the United Nations agreed to work together in the fight against organized crime and signed a document regulating the interaction between the legal structures of different states in the fight against illicit trafficking of psychotropic substances prohibited for free use. Over time, similar cooperation spread to the arms trade underground.
What does it look like
To understand the algorithm by which the operation is carried out, we can give an example of controlled delivery with the crossing of the state border of a state. Let’s say that the country's special services received information that on such a day or by certain people an attempt will be made to transport prohibited goods through customs. Of course, you can immediately remove him, and delinquents to detain.
But sometimes it’s important to punish not the perpetrators, but the organizers of the smuggling supply with the necessary evidence of their criminal activity. You can identify them only by following the further path of the goods with the establishment of all the actors in the operation. In this case, it will be much easier to find the organizers and stop their activities in the future. Sometimes the prohibited goods at the border can be discreetly replaced by completely harmless, so that the carrier would not have guessed about it. But this is not always possible. In any case, it is being monitored using special services right up to the arrival of the cargo to its destination. True, not everything is so simple. In order to carry out an operation with supervised smuggling, court permission is required. And it can be obtained only by providing strong evidence of the need for an event.
Not free implementation
Today, in operative-search measures, controlled delivery is used in the investigation of criminal cases, which are based on objects and substances, the use or application of which requires special permission. For example, antiques, historical and cultural values. In the same category can be attributed information constituting a state secret. Everything that can become the object of supervised supply is conditionally divided into two subgroups.
The first consists of things and items subject to mandatory licensing for activities with their use. These are dangerous toxic substances, psychotropic drugs, weapons, explosives, precious metals and stones, technical equipment for space and military purposes and much more. Crimes associated with them are rarely committed by true organizers. The rough work of transporting objects or their elements lies with ordinary performers. From them to the organizers stretches a long chain of intermediaries.
Conditionally open turnover
A little shorter is the string of accomplices involved in the criminal operation, when it comes to objects and substances that are conditionally prohibited for free circulation. They belong to the second subgroup. This can be equipment that, with a small alteration, is then used for clandestine laboratories producing the same drugs, toxic or psychotropic substances. A controlled supply of goods related to the activities of criminal organizations is able to identify and eliminate the focus of evil.
The second subgroup, in addition to the listed ones, includes precious metals, securities and monetary units obtained as a result of illegal actions, such as theft or fraud. Stolen cars, stolen goods, especially if a whole network is established to commit such crimes, can also become objects for controlled deliveries. Often the organizers and perpetrators of such crimes are not only in different regions of the same state, but also in different countries. This is where the Vienna Convention comes into force.
Common tasks
In the Russian Federation, controlled delivery was legalized in 1993 with the relevant amendments to the current Customs Code. Employees of the department received the right to carry out and control the import into the country of substances and items that are of particular interest to criminal communities of several states at once. Quite often, Russia was used in a chain of such criminal acts only as a transit zone. But even in this case, our special services rendered all possible assistance to their colleagues from other countries.
In operations of this magnitude, a clear interaction of all participants is required. The smallest details of controlled delivery with the competent authorities of other states, if possible, are agreed in advance. The sooner an agreement is reached between the leaders of the special services, the more quickly the direct participants in the supervision of the movement of goods will begin to work. Given that the outcome of the measures is the eradication of international smuggling, which any country may be involved in, in most cases joint actions can be agreed upon.
With permission and under supervision
After the adoption of the new provision, the operational-search measure “Controlled Delivery” was introduced into the activities of the Customs Union by law enforcement agencies. It was included in the law on the ARD in 1995 and implies that, with the knowledge of the competent authorities, they can allow the tacit import of goods of interest to both the criminal community and law enforcement officers. Carriers are monitored to control the movement of goods up to their final destination.
The report on all operational actions in relation to the supervised goods is obligatory brought to the higher management. In this case, no amateur performances are allowed in the ORM. Controlled delivery actions inconsistent with the operations headquarters may lead to the failure of the entire mission and international scandal. Therefore, for each step of the special services, an appropriate permission is required. In the current conditions of well-established communication through mobile operators and space satellites, it is not difficult to get it.
Urgently
The development of modern technologies is especially noticeable when it is necessary to act quickly. Criminals do not always behave predictably, and quite often they have to make decisions based on the situation. But in this case, the notification of the higher authority performing the operation on the change of its previously uncoordinated stages must be made within 24 hours. And the next day, get official permission for the relevant actions or stop all actions.
The controlled delivery to the ARD is subject to special control, and the special services should not forget about it. This is especially important if, at the border, the smuggled goods were not secretly seized and replaced with legal or less dangerous goods. Such actions are resorted to in cases where prohibited items or substances present the possibility of poisoning or explosion during transportation. In matters of suppressing a detected crime, it is necessary first of all to observe safety and ensure it to others.
In all available ways
Smuggling can be carried out by almost all types of possible movement of goods. But there are three of the most common. These are courier delivery, postal mail and container shipping. In the first case, controlled delivery can be carried out without the knowledge of the direct carrier. He is given a package, or an envelope, or goods packaged in any other way, which must be transferred for a fee. Courier control is carried out visually using special equipment. A similar method is used to monitor container transportation.
The tactics of supervision of the movement of controlled cargo by mail has its own characteristics. First of all, they affect the rights of citizens to the confidentiality of personal correspondence, therefore, to open the mail, to make sure that the forwarding is prohibited, the investigators need to have the appropriate permission from the court. There are other subtleties. For example, a letter or parcel may be sent to a front man with the same request for transfer to the third link of the chain. Therefore, it is so important to observe previously developed stages of the operation and record all your actions. This can be photo and video materials, certificates of inspection of goods certified by witnesses. Otherwise, the respondent may quite reasonably report a violation of his constitutional rights.
Features of the internal investigation
Things or objects that are not always prohibited for open use enter the country from outside. For example, it’s much easier to establish criminal activity in hijacking expensive cars, stealing weapons, antiques, producing counterfeit money or a number of other offenses in your own country. In their investigation, different types of ORM are used. Controlled delivery is one of them. The principle is the same as when crossing the state border. The cargo is installed, and visual control is carried out behind it.
With internal oversight of such an operation, its approval should no longer be carried out at the state level, but only with the law enforcement agencies of those regions where goods will be transported or are already moving. An exception is the cargo of specially controlled use: weapons, secret technologies, weapons of mass destruction, and the like. In this case, the operation is carried out with the involvement of the operational bodies of the central apparatus of the Ministry of Internal Affairs or counterintelligence, which plan and carry out it from beginning to end.
Alien business
A completely different algorithm for the actions of the Russian special services with international controlled delivery. The development of all stages of the operation is carried out by the state that initiated its implementation. First, the entire chain of possible interactions is agreed at the state level. Only then do direct performers connect to it. Those, in turn, also develop their possible actions on the ground within the framework agreed by higher authorities.
When making an international delivery, a criminal case in another country where the operation is directly carried out is not instituted. All the intricacies of the actions outlined in the framework of this investigation must be notified to the local prosecutor's office in order to avoid its possible interference in the history of others. Naturally, it is highly likely that direct supervision of the cargo will be carried out by police or counterintelligence officers of the state where the operation is carried out. But in this case, its initiators will control both the goods and their colleagues.
Transit flows
Similar actions by the special services are also observed when passing the supervisory cargo through a country in transit. Sometimes it is possible to establish in advance that the smuggled goods will cross more than one border. Sometimes such an opportunity is established only during the operation itself. In this case, controlled delivery is also a matter of the state that initiated the investigation. The chain of coordination of joint actions includes the Ministry of the Interior, customs and border authorities, and the Federal Security Service. The crimes revealed during the joint investigation may subsequently serve as a starting point for the internal suppression of certain actions and the institution of criminal cases. But in case of transit controlled delivery, the local authorities are not entitled to open their own production in its respect.
With violation of constitutional rights
No matter how good the goals are when organizing a controlled delivery, its implementation violates the legal rights of citizens. The constitutional guarantees for confidentiality of correspondence have already been mentioned here. In addition, people who do not have anything to do with the crime often fall into the investigation of the case under the close supervision of special services. It can be quite law-abiding customs officers through which the goods pass, drivers of the transport on which smuggling is transported. Here you can also include respectable workers of other institutions related to the supervised product. They are being monitored, their telephone conversations are tapped.
According to the Constitution, citizens must be notified of operational investigative measures against them, indicating that they have violated a specific article of the Criminal Code. Whatever the types of controlled delivery: internal or external, for all actions taken in relation to the citizens involved in it, it is necessary to have appropriate court permits. Otherwise, the event may be declared illegal.