RALPH WENGE, CNN ANCHOR: The collapse of communist governments in many Soviet bloc countries left a power vacuum that organized crime quickly rushed to fill. Police in Poland have now set up a new division of officers to fight such criminal activity. TV-Poland tells us about their early success.</s>BARBARA GRAD, TVP (voice-over): The Central Bureau for Investigation, a newly formed unit of the Polish police, patterned after American FBI, scored its first direct hit. This here is a fully equipped, albeit illegal, distillery, in which the spirits smuggled in from Western Europe was transformed into top-brand liquors. In the course of two years, the police said the international gang smuggled over two and half million liters of pure alcohol, worth something in vicinity of $50 million U.S. wholesale.</s>ZDIGNIEW MATWIEJ, POLISH POLICE (through translator): For over a year, Polish and Italian policemen met in secret with German custom officials to work out details of the operation which has just launched. Across Europe at the same time, the police arrested the bosses of the gang. The evidence of their crime was secured.</s>GRAD: This spirit was smuggled in from France by road. Eighty- five tanks trucks got into Poland in two years. And this is the limousine the boss of the gang used to drive. He and his deputy were arrested by the police. Three of his top lieutenants were apprehended in Germany. The German sources put the value of the cash and equipment secured in Germany alone at six million Deutsche mark.</s>MATWIEJ (through translator): This was the first-ever Polish police operation involving the forces of several countries, and it proved a success.</s>GRAD: According to the sources, this is just the beginning. The police in Poland and Germany is getting ready to continue to cooperate. Polish FBI is some 2,000 officers strong. It has been found only recently to fight organized crime. This is Barbara Grad, Polish television, for CNN WORLD REPORT.
New Polish Police Force Scoreds First Big Hit