The scientific work is devoted to the study of criminological characteristics and the development of measures to prevent the smuggling of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their analogues or precursors by the customs authorities of Ukraine.
Quantitative and qualitative indicators of the above-mentioned criminal acts are determined, namely: level, geography, character, structure, dynamics, as well as the level of latency. In addition, a criminological characterization of persons who commit such acts, as well as the causes and conditions such as determinants of smuggling of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their analogues or precursors. It has been established that in recent years there has been a constant fluctuation of their number in the range of 15-55%, either upwards or downwards, but such fluctuations are within the range of 210-330 facts, and there are no stable trends. The same is evidenced by the analysis of indicators regarding the number of declared suspicions (ranging from 110-220), identified persons (ranging from 80-140) and convicted (ranging from 80-120) under this article of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The main way of smuggling narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, their analogues or precursors is to place them in hiding places and, in 5% of cases, to give some substances the appearance of others. It is proved that the preferences of smugglers in choosing the mode of transport for the illegal movement of contraband through customs control zones are constantly changing. Today, the share of smuggling by rail (2%) and by pedestrian crossing of the state border (0%) has decreased, and by road (63%) and postal services (14%) has increased significantly.
The typology of persons who commit the considered criminal acts is carried out. Thus, according to the degree of depth of anti-social orientation of the perpetrators can be divided into three types: smuggler-drug addict, smuggler-drug dealer, unstable type.
It is proved that prevention and counteraction to smuggling, including narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, their analogues or precursors is one of the main tasks of the State Customs Service of Ukraine. To accomplish this task, the State Customs Service participates in international cooperation on combating smuggling, including by exchanging information with customs, law enforcement and other foreign authorities on combating the illicit movement of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, their analogues and precursors.
It was stated that the optimization of the process of prevention of drug smuggling by customs authorities should take place in the following areas: improvement of interaction between the subjects of counteraction to smuggling both at the national and international level; providing the customs authorities with the latest technical means of drug detection (body scanners, technical complexes of automatic scanning and measurement); reaching a new level of centralization of information and analytical support for the collection, processing, storage and exchange of information on the situation in the field of combating drug trafficking and improving information retrieval systems not only at the national but also at the international level; improving the training, retraining and advanced training of customs officers, especially acquaintance with world experience in this area; proper canine support (further development of canine service, improvement of methods of work with service dogs); Comprehensive anti-corruption not only in customs and law enforcement agencies, which are directly involved in the process of combating smuggling, but also in the executive and judicial authorities (almost all large-scale illegal actions of transnational criminal structures in the field of smuggling are carried out with the assistance of some corrupt officials. and other public authorities).
