In the section of the report covering Croatia, the part subtitled "Accomplishments" reads that "Croatia continues to cooperate well with neighboring and other European states to improve the control and management of its porous borders. Cooperation on narcotics enforcement issues with neighboring states is generally described as excellent. In October 2005, Croatian police joined with police from Macedonia, Slovenia, and Serbian police in Operation "Put" (path) to break up an ongoing heroin smuggling operation. Twelve persons (Croatian, Turkish and Macedonian citizens) were arrested and 1.3 kilograms of heroin seized. In another operation, Croatian police worked with their Austrian counterparts to arrest an Albanian national involved in drug smuggling in Croatia."
The Croatian section recalls that Croatia "is not a producer of narcotics. However, narcotics smuggling, particularly heroin, through the Balkans route to Western Europe remains a serious concern. Croatian law enforcement bodies cooperate actively with their U.S. and regional counterparts to combat narcotics smuggling. Croatia is a party to the 1988 UN Drug Convention."
The Croatian section also reads that "the Interior Ministry maintains cooperative relationships with Interpol and an expanding number of neighboring states. Croatian police and Customs authorities continued to coordinate counternarcotics efforts on targeted border-crossing points, although with 189 legal border crossings, the level of coordination was not consistent. Heroin (114 kilograms in 2004 vs. 25 kilograms in 2005), Hashish (53 kilograms in 2004 vs. 6 kilograms in 2005) and marijuana (967 kilograms in 2004 vs. 428 in 2005) seizures fell sharply during the first ten months of 2005 compared to the same period of 2004. Cocaine seizures, while small absolutely, increased sharply (from 7 kilograms in 2004 to 17.6 kilograms in 2005), amphetamine and ecstasy seizures declined."
As regards bilateral cooperation "the primary objectives of U.S. initiatives in Croatia are to offer assistance with the development of skills and tools among Croatian law enforcement agencies to improve their ability to combat organized crime and narcotics trafficking and to improve Croatian law enforcement agencies" abilities to work bilaterally and regionally to combat trafficking. Having achieved basic objectives ahead of schedule, U.S. assistance for police reform efforts under the ICITAP (DoJ) program was refocused on combating organized crime. In April, U.S. DEA special agents joined with ICITAP trainers to help Croatian police develop confidential source management skills. In October, Croatian police formed the first joint police-prosecutor task force to target a criminal organization allegedly involved in drug trafficking. In addition, Croatian police have been regular participants in training programs at the U.S.-funded International Law Enforcement Academy in Budapest as well as follow-on training in Roswell, New Mexico".
In 2006, "U.S. expert training teams will join in-country U.S. trainers to help Croatian police develop skills in complex case management, undercover operations, anticorruption investigations, and detecting financial crimes including money laundering. In addition, resident advisors will continue to assist the Ministry of Interior in improving police and prosecutor cooperation in complex narcotics and organized crime cases. Additional training and detection equipment donations planned for 2006 under the EXBS program will have ancillary benefits for Croatia"s fight against narcotics trafficking, particularly in the areas of interagency cooperation and border management," the report reads.