An assassination attempt.

An assassination attempt on a financial police investigator from the State Revenue Service has thrust the country_ problems with smuggling and tax evasion into the spotlight. Helmuts Skuja, who was investigating alcohol smuggling, was shot at his residence, an apartment building in Riga, on Sept. 23. Skuja was shot on the stairs of his apartment building, preparing to leave for work, while his family was still inside at the time of the attack. During an investigation, state police discovered a pistol with a silencer inside his apartment. "He is in hospital now. The situation is normal," said Dzintars Jakans, spokesman for Latvia_s State Revenue Service. Jakans said Skuja will soon undergo surgery to remove the bullets from his body. For the investigator_s security, a guard has been posted by his hospital room."This is the first time an officer has been shot. This is an unusual case, and we have to work with more security," said Jakans. Nevertheless, the SRS claimed there is a direct link between Skuja_s investigation and the attempt to assassinate him."[Skuja] was very close to handing this smuggling case over to the prosecutor_s office, that_s why we think he was shot," said Jakans.In response to Skuja_s shooting, the SRS, not to mention the Ministry of Interior, has adopted a much tougher stance against smugglers - it has declared war. Jakans said the Interior and Finance ministries and the general prosecutor_s office have started organizing an anti-smuggling effort that will include the state police and the SRS. "That means for this dark side, these criminals and businessmen, we will make it more difficult on them. We will apply extra pressure," he said. However, Skuja_s shooting has come at a time when the financial police department has taken a lot more of its cases, consisting of fraud, smuggling and tax evasion amongst others, to criminal prosecution. Back in 1995, 99 cases were handed over for criminal prosecution, according to statistics obtained from financial police.In 1998, 282 cases made their way into the prosecutor_s office, while this year there have already been 212 such cases, after eight months. Still, Jakans denied any connection between these increased numbers and Skuja_s shooting. The director of the financial police, Gunars Kutris, affirmed Jakans_ claims about increased professionalism with his investigators in a separate interview on the day of Skuja_s shooting. Kutris said he was not worried about the increasing numbers of cases taken to criminal prosecution, saying the force is more experienced and the crimes themselves and becoming more complicated.