From 11 to 14 April 2023, the DISRUPT organised two key events in Brasilia, Brazil, including the “Meeting of the Informal Contact Group of the Triple Border and Chile” and a “Subregional Workshop on Arms Trafficking and Related Crimes in the Southern Cone on Electronic Evidence and International Cooperation.” The activities included the participation of magistrates and officials of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Police from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile and Paraguay.
The Ambassador of the Delegation of the European Union in Brazil, Ignacio Ybáñez, and the representative of the UNODC Global Firearms Program, Simonetta Grassi, opened the event which provided a platform for experts and officials to come together and discuss the challenges of firearms trafficking in the region and explore possible solutions. The focus on enhanced international cooperation and the use of existing tools to strengthen collaboration between countries is considered an important towards addressing the problem of firearms trafficking and related crimes in the Southern Cone.
During four days of intense activity, various presentations were made by experts in the field of international cooperation, members of UNODC, as well as INTERPOL and EUROPOL.The officials who attended the meetings identified and evaluated the specific problems of arms trafficking in the region, the new trends in trafficking illegal firearms, and the referral of these weapons to the black market and cross-border trafficking. They discussed different instruments and tools for international cooperation in law enforcement and judicial matters and agreed on the need to strengthen collaboration between prosecutors and police of the participating countries. They emphasised the use of different existing international cooperation tools at the regional level to address the issue.
The DISRUPT Project aims to enhance targeted countries’ law enforcement and criminal justice systems response capabilities to combat trafficking and illicit proliferation of firearms through a holistic response. Thus, these events strive to accomplish this objective by expanding stakeholder capacities and by producing sustainable practices in an effort to effectively disrupt this market.
