COLIBRI held its first Steering Committee

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…

CORMS attends COPOLAD 4th Annual Conference in Suriname

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…

Newsbriefing – Week of 17 June

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…

Newsbriefing – Week of 3 June

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…

Newsbriefing – Week of 27 May

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…

CRIMJUST at the CCPCJ 28th session to promote strengthening of capacities in the fight against drug trafficking and dismantling of cocaine labs

CRIMJUST, a Cocaine Route Programme component, took part in the 28th Session of the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ) in Vienna, Austria, on 21 May. It was a unique opportunity for CRIMJUST to present, together with the Integrated Illicit Crop Monitoring System Project of the UNODC Office in Colombia, the…

SEACOP delivers JMCU mentoring to five Caribbean countries

Between 27 April and 22 May 2019, SEACOP delivered Joint Maritime Control Unit (JMCU) courses to five Caribbean countries. Beneficiary countries are Saint Kitts and Nevis, the British Virgin Islands, Antigua and Barbuda, Guyana and Dominica. The mentoring was delivered by four trainers from the UK’s Border Force Agency, high specialists in the fight against maritime trafficking.