From 24 to 28 of October, AIRCOP and the Global Firearms Programme, in collaboration with the Barbados Customs and Excise Department and the Barbados Police Service, delivered a Firearms Identification and Detection Training for 15 Customs officials posted at the international airport and harbour.
This training involved both theoretical and practical aspects, including lectures on the new trends in illicit manufacturing, trafficking and diversion of firearms (such as disassembled firearms, use of the darkweb, fast parcels, 3-D printing, etc.), followed by specific tools and techniques to detect illicit firearms (risk management, profiling, concealment methods, etc.). After those sessions, the trainees had the opportunity to manipulate a variety of firearms, their parts and components and ammunition, to familiarise themselves with them; conducted a practical exercise on the identification of firearms, parts and components; and they also practiced the identification and detection of concealed firearms and their parts and components using x-ray scanners at the airport.
