Montenegro: Border Police Marine Unit Completes Final Phase of Airboat Training

From June 14 to 17, 2022, ICITAP-Montenegro coordinated a training course on airboat operation for law-enforcement officers. The training concludes a cycle of project activity that included a study visit to the U.S., donation of two Diamondback airboats, and the delivery of two training courses—one in the Everglades and one on Lake Skadjar in Montenegro. The week’s session was delivered by five experienced LE trainers from South Florida, all certified trainers with the U.S. Department of Interior. They trained eleven officers from the Marine Unit of the National Police Directorate’s Border Police.  The course concluded with operator certification for each of the Border Police officers and now clears the way for use of the airboats in patrol and counter-smuggling operations on Lake Skadjar, which contains a maritime border between Montenegro and Albania.  Montenegro now has thirteen certified airboat operators with the ability to patrol Lake Skadar by airboat. The airboats will increase the capability of the Border Police to patrol Lake Skadjar, an area that includes numerous swampy areas and narrow water paths often used by smugglers to evade LE patrols. In Montenegro, ICITAP works with the support of and in coordination with the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.