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Law enforcement organizations have not applied all their resources to make anti-crime efforts in the Russian Far East systematic and active, the presidential envoy to the region Oleg Safonov told reporters in Khabarovsk on Tuesday.

“The work is being conducted but we can not say that it is effective enough,” Safonov revealed, news reports cited him as saying. “We talk about an 8 percent drop in the number of registered crimes but the crime level in the region is one third higher than in other regions of Russia,” he elaborated.

According to Safonov, the crime rings in the Far Eastern region are strongly intermingled with people with power and authority. The characteristic crimes are those committed in the fishing and forestry industries and poaching activities aimed at exporting valuable resources abroad, he noted.

Safonov mentioned some positive changes in this respect – in the years 2006 and 2007 law enforcement bodies performed several large-scale operations and detained three mafia bosses and nine criminal leaders. The number of registered cases of illegal timber and fish exports has also grown, he added.

Safonov also noted that the fight against corruption has yielded results – criminal charges were initiated against former Amur region Governor Leonid Korotkov, former Vladivostok Mayor Vladimir Nikolayev and several vice governors working for the Primorye administration.

The General Prosecutor’s office should monitor the situation more actively and coordinate the work of the law enforcement structures, he concluded.