The paper deals with the joint investigation teams in the EU that are considered as a necessary tool to enhance the internal security of the EU. They are the desired instruments for international cooperation of judicial and law enforcement authorities in the fight against organized cross-border crimes as well as a useful tool in facilitating mutual assistance in criminal matters between the Member States of the EU. Joint investigation teams have demonstrated their usefulness in investigating the most serious forms of criminality such as terrorism or drug trafficking. The paper firstly focuses on the development of joint investigation teams and their legal basis at the level of the EU, namely the Convention on mutual assistance in criminal matters between the Member States of the EU and the Framework Decision on joint investigation teams. Further, it introduces the establishment of joint investigation teams. JITs are established on the basis of a written mutual agreement between two or more Member States of the EU. Special attention is focused on national experts of joint investigation teams and the participation of Europol and Eurojust in joint investigation teams. Both Europol and Eurojust were established to support Member States of the EU in the fight against serious organized cross-border crime. Both of them can participate in JITs separately as well as jointly. Moreover, it discusses their implementation in the European Union legal system, as well as common problems.
The article presents the importance of financial investigations carried out by specialized units to combat money laundering and the detection of illegal profits of trafficking in human beings and smuggling of migrants in order to reduce them. The author presents the EU legal arrangements in the field of anti-trafficking and migrant smuggling policies based on the relevant United Nations’ Convention, and describes the problem of money laundering in the context of these criminal practices. The key measuresto increase the cost and risk and to reduce the profits of human trafficking and smuggling of migrants should be the involvement of financial intelligence units in preventing and combating these criminal practices. The key component of effective prevention and combating trafficking in human beings and smuggling of migrants, in accordance with the recommendations contained in the EU Strategy for the elimination of trafficking in human beings for the years 2012–2016, should be police cooperation with financial intelligence units — both at national and international level. This cooperation should be based on the creation of joint multi-disciplinary investigation teams. At the same time this cooperation should enable data collection and the exchange of information needed to analyse these criminal practices. The involvement of skilled financial investigators in joint investigation teams will contribute to the effective prosecution of human trafficking and illegal migration and the accompanying practices such as corruption and money laundering. The culmination of this type of investigation should be the detection, seizure and confiscation of assets derived from criminal activity.