The State Environmental Service (VVD), in cooperation with the State Revenue Service Customs Board, participated in the most extensive Interpol operation to date, '30 Days at Sea', which uncovered an illegal shipment of scrap metal waste to India, although no violations were found during the vessel inspections carried out.

The Interpol-led international operation '30 Days at Sea' took place between 01.03.2021 and 31.03.2021 across 67 countries, involving 300 different agencies and institutions and conducting 34,000 checks to uncover marine pollution violations in seas, inland waterways, coastal zones and ports. It revealed nearly 500 instances of illegal pollution from ships at sea, 1,000 pollution violations in coastal zones and rivers, and 130 cases in ports related to waste transport. In the current situation, where various regulatory resources are being concentrated on stabilising the situation caused by the pandemic, criminals are exploiting this opportunity to commit various types of environmental pollution crimes. INTERPOL notes that thanks to a global cooperation network, the number of checks carried out since the first '30 Days at Sea' operation has doubled – it is clear that society will not tolerate criminal attacks on the environment. In this, the most extensive operation to date, thousands of suspects, companies and representatives of criminal networks involved in marine pollution have been identified.