Programme dossier
Led by UNODC, with the European Commission.
PRELAC: Prevention of the diversion of drug precursors on the record
Precursor control, where the commodity is lawful, the trade is legitimate, and the offence is the point at which it leaves the licit market.
What it addresses
Its full title — the prevention of the diversion of drug precursors in the Latin American and Caribbean region — states the scope precisely, and precursors are the clearest case in this subject of a control problem that is not a smuggling problem. The chemicals required to manufacture cocaine, heroin and the amphetamine-type stimulants are ordinary industrial goods moving in lawful trade, and diversion happens mostly out of that licit trade rather than around it. The official description identifies the constraint precisely: limited knowledge and limited capacity to share information about which chemicals are in use, in what quantities, and by what methods of diversion, which hampers control at both regional and national level. The substances and the methods both change continuously as traffickers work around trade controls.
How it works
The project was a three-year action to strengthen the capacities of the national administrative control authorities — not the police, and that distinction is the substance of it. Precursor control is exercised by the bodies that license chemical imports, verify end users and reconcile declared quantities, so the capability being built is administrative reconciliation rather than interdiction. It built on an earlier regional project, and its scope is the Latin American and Caribbean region, where the manufacture that the diverted chemicals feed is concentrated.
Where it applies
PRELAC addresses 2 of the corridors described on the drug routes page: The Caribbean corridor, The Central American isthmus. The jurisdictions on each are listed there, and every one of them has a record setting out its treaty position, its confirmed national instruments and its current monitoring status.
That combination is what determines whether a programme of this kind can operate in a given place. Capacity-building assumes there is a legal power to build capacity around: an interdiction technique needs a statutory basis, a joint investigation needs a mutual legal assistance route, and a trace needs a record-keeping obligation. Where those are absent the constraint is legislative rather than operational.
Jurisdictions on those corridors — 20
Anguilla · Antigua and Barbuda · Barbados · Belize · British Virgin Islands · Colombia · Costa Rica · Dominica · Dominican Republic · El Salvador · Guatemala · Honduras · Jamaica · Mexico · Nicaragua · Panama · Saint Lucia · Saint Vincent and the Grenadines · Trinidad and Tobago · Venezuela
This is the reach of the corridors PRELAC addresses, not a list of participating states: participation is asserted by the inherited index and confirmed by no official source, so it is not published. What can be stated is which jurisdictions sit on the routes in question, and what the record shows about each.
Treaty basis
In substance the work operationalises Article 12 of the 1988 Convention, which obliges parties to control the substances listed in its tables, to monitor trade in them and to cooperate on preventing their diversion. The distinction matters: a programme of this kind creates no legal powers of its own. It builds the capacity of states to use powers they already hold under instruments they have ratified, which is why a jurisdiction that is not party to the relevant instrument gains less from participation than one that is. What each instrument obliges is set out on the conventions reference.
Questions
What was PRELAC?
Prevention of the diversion of drug precursors, led by UNODC, with the European Commission. Precursor control, where the commodity is lawful, the trade is legitimate, and the offence is the point at which it leaves the licit market. The description on this page is drawn from UNODC, which documents it.
What problem was PRELAC designed to address?
Its full title — the prevention of the diversion of drug precursors in the Latin American and Caribbean region — states the scope precisely, and precursors are the clearest case in this subject of a control problem that is not a smuggling problem. The chemicals required to manufacture cocaine, heroin and the amphetamine-type stimulants are ordinary industrial goods moving in lawful trade, and diversion happens mostly out of that licit trade rather than around it. The official description identifies the constraint precisely: limited knowledge and limited capacity to share information about which chemicals are in use, in what quantities, and by what methods of diversion, which hampers control at both regional and national level. The substances and the methods both change continuously as traffickers work around trade controls.
Which trafficking corridors does PRELAC relate to?
The Caribbean corridor, The Central American isthmus. Those corridors and the jurisdictions on them are set out on the drug routes page.
What is the treaty basis for this kind of work?
In substance, Article 12 of the 1988 Convention, which obliges parties to control the substances listed in its tables, to monitor trade in them and to cooperate on preventing their diversion. A programme of this kind does not create legal powers; it builds the capacity to use powers a state already has under instruments it has ratified, which is why the ratification position on each jurisdiction record matters to what such a programme can achieve there.
Is PRELAC still running?
This index does not assert a current operational state for any programme in it. Funding cycles turn over faster than the pages describing them, and a dossier that claimed a programme was active would be making a claim it could not keep current. UNODC is the place to check, and it is linked from the sources at the foot of this page.
Where does PRELAC apply?
To the 20 jurisdictions on the corridors it addresses, each of which has a record here. Every one of them carries at least one national instrument confirmed against an official register. Participant lists are not published here — the inherited archive asserts them and no official source confirms them, so the reach given is the corridor reach.
Sources
- UNODC — Prevention of the diversion of drug precursors . Checked 2026-07-30.