Police representatives from Southeastern European countries met in Sofia to discuss increasing the number of joint activities to boost cooperation and efficiency.

Representatives of the Southeast European Police Chiefs Association gathered in Sofia. The association includes Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Romania and Macedonia.

Interior Minister Roumen Petkov opened the forum, Bulgarian news agency BTA reported.

Bulgarian National Police head Valentin Petrov said that the tendency of heroin smuggling from the Middle East to Western Europe persisted as one of the major problems Southeast European authorities had to deal with.

Drug trafficking through Bulgaria decreased by 30 per cent over the past year, Petrov said.