The WAPIS System
The WAPIS System
National platform of the West African Police Information System launched by INTERPOL in Ghana
The national platform of the West African Police Information System (WAPIS) was launched in Ghana on 29 September 2015. Attended by the INTERPOL Vice President for Africa, the ECOWAS Vice President, the European Union Ambassador to Ghana, Ghana’s Minister for the Interior as well as high-level authorities from Benin, Ghana, Mali, Mauritania, Namibia, Niger and…
News Briefing – Week beginning on 29 September
Victor Ramon Navarro, one of the most important and ruthless cocaine warlords in Colombia, was killed in Catatumbo, during an airstrike followed by a ground operation organised by the Colombian Army. Diezani Allison-Madueke, Nigeria’s former minister of petroleum, was arrested in London as accused of money laundering. The former minister’s arrest would be the first high…
FBI reveals that petty drug crime is number one offence category in the US
FBI stats reveal that in 2014 drug arrests were the single largest category of offenses with three times as many drug arrests last year as there were arrests for violent crimes. Interestingly, 45% of these were or 700,993 were marijuana related, and 88% for simple possession. Even though several states have legalised cannabis production, sale…
News Briefing – Week beginning on 22 September
Argentine customs agents found about 30 kg of cocaine absorbed into grains of rice headed to Africa and then be transported to Europe. This seizure reflects the growing importance of Argentina as a shipping point for cocaine from Latin America to Western countries. Drug trafficking in Honduras has reportedly dropped 72% thanks to military intelligence…
West African Police Information System launched by INTERPOL
WAPIS, one of the components of the Cocaine Route Programme has launched the first electronic police information system in Mali as well as in Benin and Niger. The launch was attended by Mali’s Interior Minister, Général Sada Samaké, who emphasized its ‘internal security role’. Funded by the European Union (EU) and implemented by INTERPOL with…
New Study debunks the link between ivory poaching and terrorism
Over recent years there have been allegations that Al-Shabaab, the radical Somali Islamist group, is deriving considerable funds from elephant poaching and the ivory trade. Researchers from the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) have examined the evidence and expose this as myth in a new study: ‘Illusion of Complicity.” There is little evidence of any…
Rising methamphetamine production point to gaps in the precursor control system in Mexico.
The number of methamphetamine laboratories dismantled by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has fallen from 12,049 in 2013 to 9,306 in 2014. Yet, because the levels of meth consumption are believed to have remained stable the agency believes that production has shifted across the border to Mexico. One of the reasons for this, according…
News briefing – week beginning on 14 September
Brazil’s Supreme Court justices have been discussing the possibility of decriminalise the personal possession of marijuana. Six votes are needed for the bill to pass and three out of the 11 judges have already voted in favour. According to the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) approximately 62 tons of cocaine were seized last…
Reported changes in coca paste/hydrochloride refinement methods
Cocaine prices appear to have stabilised in the major consumer markets. Falling demand, competition from New Psychoactive Substances and shifts in consumer preference have been suggested by way of explanation. But according to UNODC sources in Peru a different factor may be at work. Changes in the refinement method mean that a far lower amount…