Southeastern Europe in the crossroads of heroin trade and illegal immigration routes: The case of the “Heroin Balkan Route

By Ioannis Michaletos
The Interpol is quite specific in identifying the real importance of Southeastern Europe in the present day European narcotics market. According to the research of that organization, two primary routes are used to smuggle heroin: the Balkan Route, which runs through South Eastern Europe, and the Silk Route, which runs through Central Asia.
Balkan Route is divided into three sub-routes: the southern route runs through Turkey, Greece, Albania and Italy. Further, there is the central route that runs through Turkey, Bulgaria, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, and into either Italy or Austria. Lastly there is the northern route that runs from Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania to Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland or Germany. Large quantities of heroin are destined for either the Netherlands or the United Kingdom and from there on they are being distributed in neighboring markets such as Ireland or the Scandinavian countries. The anchor point for the Balkan Route is Turkey, which remains a major staging area and transportation route for heroin destined for European markets, mainly due to geographical reasons, as described previously.
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