Illegal pork could be on your fork

  • 2001-10-25
  • Jorgen Johansson
RIGA - Mud was again being slung across the national stage this week after a Latvian MP claimed senior state officials were involved in meat smuggling.

Karlis Leiskalns, chairman of the parliamentary commission for economy, agriculture, environment and regional policy, on Oct. 17 presented to Parliament a demand bearing 34 MPs' signatures, for the establishment of a commission to investigate the possible smuggling of meat and other products by state officials.

"People who are involved in this business take a certain risk, and they are aware of this risk," he told The Baltic Times. "Contraband is something you encounter all over the country."

Although enough signatures were collected to establish a commission, Leiskalns is aware that previous commissions have only increased the public's lack of faith in politicians while proving little.

"I don't want to say that our job will match that of the police or the prosecutor general's office," he said. "The public has been disappointed in previous commissions."

In an earlier televised interview Leiskalns said he could not say everything he knew about meat smuggling in Latvia since he wished "to stay alive." Later, however, he said he regretted these words.

"I think this could have been misinterpreted. I'm not a coward. I don't have enough information to fear for my life. I may use colorful phrases to draw attention to a subject. "

The idea of forming a parliamentary investigative commission came to Leiskalns after he was briefed on meat smuggling by former economic police inspector Normunds Margevics.

Latvia's Anti-Contraband Center, the authority mainly responsible for fighting smuggling, reported that during the first nine months of this year it intercepted illegal deals that would have cost the state 24 million lats ($38.4 million).

The center took credit for stopping gasoline smuggling worth 6 million lats, confiscating several thousand tons of poultry, 28,600 liters of spirit, 14.3 tons of tobacco and 7 million cigarettes.

"The people dealing with this may have some sort of computer system to coordinate their actions, but nobody seems able to pinpoint the final destination of these cargoes - it could be heaven or hell," Leiskalns said.

"Chicken meat supposedly transiting the country frequently remains here illegally and consumers then pay a high price for this low-quality meat."

Since Leiskalns' meeting with Margevics an investigation has been carried out into two members of the Constitution Protection Office, the country's top security agency. After a 24-hour investigation the chairman of the national security commission, Andrejs Pantelejevs, declared that the two, Arnolds Babris and Guntars Kalnins, were innocent.

"There are no grounds to believe the officials concerned are involved in contraband activities," said Pantelejevs. "The new parliamentary investigative commission will decide on whether releasing the names of the officials was justified."

He also said the prosecutor generals' office was investigating whether the allegations against the operatives were politically motivated. Leiskalns responded that the officials' names had been given to him by Margevics, who, he said, could himself be involved in meat smuggling.

"There could be political motives behind this. These names were presented to me by Margevics, but I have no political motives. The CPO director is a former party colleague of mine."

Valdis Berzins, who as foreign editor of the newspaper Lauku Avize keeps a close eye on developments in the smuggling world, commented: "I hope Leiskalns' commission will find out who gave the order to pull the plug on the integrated computer system that was formerly used at all border checkpoints to check on cargo entering the country.

"It looks like Margevics has dug up some shady deals. It's impossible for the thousands of tons of meat being brought into the country to do so without officials noticing."

But Berzins is not optimistic the commission will be a success, believing instead that it is intended to bury a political hot potato.