During the last decade, organised crime has increasingly exploited General Aviation to traffic illicit commodities, in particular drugs. Since 2019, COLIBRI, within the framework of the Global Illicit Flows Programme (GIFP), aims to improve security in General Aviation by enhancing international cooperation and intelligence sharing among law enforcement agencies.
Technology can help specialised services monitor General Aviation activities. To strengthen cooperation between law enforcement administrations in Latin America and the Caribbean, West and Central Africa and Europe, COLIBRI has developed a new IT tool: the Geoportal.
The Geoportal consists of a secure web portal, a document management system, and a mobile app for consulting information on the ground and adding information on seizures. The key feature of the Geoportal is its database, which will centralise all the information that can be consulted through a secure channel.
By geo-mapping events such as seizures and crashes involving aircraft, tracking flights where possible, and gathering knowledge the Geoportal, available in four languages (English, French, Spanish and Portuguese), is extremely useful for monitoring General Aviation activities, including clandestine flights.
Through the Geoportal, law enforcement agencies will be able to collect information and send it to operational units regardless of their location. The Geoportal will make it possible to overlay information on a map and to take measures to plan a mission.
