Law enforcement authorities from more than 60 countries, coordinated and supported by Frontex and Europol, have joined forces to target organised crime groups across the EU in a series of actions. They were supported by Eurojust, Interpol, and other international partners.

Operation Dragon has been the fourth cooperative international law enforcement operation under the EU Policy Cycle targeting serious and organised crime in the EU and globally, and involved actions in hundreds of locations between 5 June and 20 October 2017.

EU Member States and their international partners came together to disrupt the activities of criminal groups involved in crimes including: payment card fraud, facilitation of illegal immigration, cybercrime, drugs trafficking, firearms trafficking, euro counterfeiting, organised property crime, excise fraud and trafficking in human beings. Law enforcement authorities assigned thousands of police, border and coast guard, and customs officers to counteract those crimes.



Frontex supported Operation Dragon according to its mandate focusing on combating migrant smuggling, trafficking in human beings and other types of cross-border crime, such as smuggling of cigarettes, firearms and detection of stolen vehicles at EU's land, sea and air borders.

Operation Dragon comprised of seven targeted operations called Joint Action Days. Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, coordinated three, co-led one and participated in two more. As a direct result of the actions, over 250 stolen vehicles have been detected, some 1000 fraudulent documents identified, more than 100 suspected people smugglers apprehended, and hundreds of firearms seized. The series of operations also helped identify more than 1000 victims of trafficking in human beings.