Crime in Slovakia

Slovakia (population 5.4 million) is a Central European country with a history of relatively low crime.

Together, there are around 15,000 cases of violent criminal acts (damage to victim's life or health) in Slovakia every year.

[citation needed] Until the mid-1990s the drug situation in Slovakia remained somewhat stable;[citation needed] extensive small-scale illicit amphetamine production, no opium poppy cultivation, only minimal cannabis cultivation in private greenhouses and the country was already a key transit point for smuggling Asian heroin to Western Europe both via Ukraine and lying on the "Balkan route" from Turkey.

[5] Because the banking sector in Slovakia was still in nascent stages at this time, drug money laundering operations were limited.

[6] The Slovak mafia is especially active in security business, construction and ownership of restaurants and nightclubs.

[6] According to the United States Department of Defense "both indigenous and foreign organized crime groups are well established in Slovakia".