On 19-20 June, the Pompidou group held the 34th Airport Cooperation Group held at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. 29 countries were represented. Representatives donor funded projects in the field of airport cooperation were represented, including the Cocaine Route Programme through CORMS and AIRCOP, but also UNODC-WCO Container Control Programme initiative. For two days, the…
On June 14th, the World Customs Organisation (WCO) hosted the first COLIBRI Steering Committee at its headquarters in Brussels. The meeting was attended by representatives of the WCO, the European Commission as well as the COLIBRI and CORMS project teams. This meeting was the opportunity to discuss COLIBRI’s achievements since the start of the project…
From 18-19 of June, CORMS took part in COPOLAD (Cooperation Programme on Drugs Policies) 4th Annual Conference in Suriname. The conference brought together over a hundred participants from 45 European, Latin American and Caribbean countries to exchange on drugs policy. This year’s topic was Inter-institutional coordination in drugs policy. The conference focused on addressing the…
German authorities have seized 670 kilos of heroin in a truck at the Polish border worth €50 million. The drug most probably came from Afghanistan and was disguised as Turkish sweets. The illicit drug was heading towards Belgium. This is the largest heroine seizure ever made in Germany’s law enforcement history. Operation Tayrona has led…
French and Romanian authorities dismantled a vast human trafficking ring with the support of Eurojust and Europol. 13 victims of sexual exploitation were saved, and 13 suspects were arrested. Russian customs have seized 400 kilos of cocaine estimated around $70M hidden in St-Petersburg port. The illicit drug came by ship from Ecuador and was hidden…
Spanish Police arrested eleven suspects after custom officers seized one tonne of cocaine concealed inside fake stones. The organised crime group was working with the stone industry to smuggle large quantities of drugs from Colombia into the port of Barcelona, to be later distributed throughout Europe. Belgian authorities dismantled a major illegal cigarette factory and…
Turkish police have arrested twenty alleged smugglers, members of one of Europe’s largest human trafficking ring, as part of joint intelligence operations across Turkey. The organisation smuggled migrants from Afghanistan and northern Iraq to European countries, in exchange for large sums of money. The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will provide support to countries of…
