AIRCOP, a component project within the Cocaine Route Programme along with CRIMJUST and SEACOP, is led by UNODC in partnership with Interpol and the World Customs Organisation. AIRCOP operates in 31 countries, covering 35 airports. The 6th Global AIRCOP meeting was held between 11-13 February 2019 at Interpol HQ, Lyon, France. This is event marked…
In Guatemala, an investigation shows the links between an influential pastor and a high-profile drug-trafficker to support the construction of a church. The concerned pastor and church denied the accusations. A legal expert suggests that Kenya include the Unexplained Wealth Order (UWO) in the country’s criminal law. In other countries, the UWO has had some…
After numerous seizures during the month of November, the Venezuelan authorities reported an increase in drug flows coming from Colombia through the country’s coastal state of Anzoátegui. It seems that the region is also the centre of an air-trafficking network, sending drugs to the Caribbean, Honduras and Mexico. The dismantling of a network of ketamine…
Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, son of the Mexican drug lord “El Chapo” Guzmán, is reportedly in Medellín, Colombia under the protection of a criminal gang. He is allegedly controlling two laboratories in the city and coordinating the shipment of around 400 kg of cocaine per week to Mexico from the Colombian port of Buenaventura, highlighting the…
A report by Euromonitor International shows that the illicit market of alcohol is a growing source of income for criminal organisation in Latin America. According to the report, the annual illegal sales of alcohol amount to $4.8 billion. Colombia Attorney General has proposed a new disruption policy to fight increasing drug production in the country,…
Authorities in Mexico have made what is almost certainly the largest seizure of methamphetamine in the country’s history, approximately 50 metric tons, along with precursor chemicals and equipment in the western state of Sinaloa. This seizure suggests that growing US demand has encouraged Mexican crime groups to increase production. In one of the largest drug…
Costa Rica’s government is struggling to stall worsening violence driven by local criminal groups battling for control of domestic drug markets. Costa Rica is a key transshipment point for Colombian cocaine heading to the United States and Europe. Instead of making payments in dollars, transnational criminal organizations often pay local criminal groups in drugs. With…
The Costa-Rica Ministry of Public Security for surveillance against organised crime and illegal fishing will use a King Air 250 as a mobile radar to battle drug trafficking as well as to protect the marine life. Mexican police arrested Victor Manuel Perez, alias “Pantera 16” (Panther 16) or “Comandante Viento” (Commander Wind), regional leader of…
CRIMJUST, the West African Network of Central Authorities and Prosecutors (WACAP) and the UNODC Project “Response to Drugs and Related Organized Crime in Nigeria” held a Workshop on Strengthening Integrity in Investigation and Prosecution of Complex Cases, on 19-20 July in Lagos, Nigeria. For two days, the participants- 30 criminal justice practitioners, mainly prosecutors from…
UNODC and the G5 Sahel agreed, during a joint meeting organised in Nouakchott on 18 July 2018, to strengthen their cooperation in the areas of security and justice. Support in the opening of three new Joint Airport Interdiction Task Forces (JAITF), in N’Djamena (Chad), Nouakchott (Mauritania), Agadez (Niger), as part of the AIRCOP program was…
