On 2 September 2016, the Brazilian Federal Police (DPF) signed an interinstitutional cooperation agreement with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in order to facilitate the cooperation between the Airport Communication Project (AIRCOP) and the International Programme for Police Cooperation in Airports (INTERCOPS).
Brazil becomes the eighth country in Latin America and the Caribbean joining AIRCOP, which includes Argentina, Colombia, Panama, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Jamaica and Barbados. The AIRCOP agreement will be implemented at the Sao Paulo – Guarulhos International Airport, the busiest airport in Latin America by passenger traffic with more than 39 million passengers in 2015, and which reports among the world’s largest number of cocaine seizures. The aim of this mutual cooperation agreement is to seize illicit shipments, by connecting the international law enforcement databases and communication networks provided by INTERPOL and World Customs Organization (WCO) and allowing the transmission of operational information and intelligence to other international airports in real-time.
The agreement signing ceremony was attended by the Director General of the DPF, the UNODC Regional Representative for Brazil and the Southern Cone, the UNODC AIRCOP Project Coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Minister Counsellor of the EU Delegation to Brazil.
Funded by the European Union under the Instrument Contributing to Stability and Peace, AIRCOP is a multi-agency, anti-trafficking initiative which strengthens detection, interdiction and investigative capacities of law enforcement officials in participating airports. AIRCOP contributes to the fight against transnational organised crime and addresses the challenge of a fragmented law enforcement approach by promoting regional and trans-regional cooperation as part of the EU Cocaine Route Programme. The AIRCOP network covers 26 beneficiaries and associate countries in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. So far, 655 seizures and 696 arrests have been recorded, including 1,410 kg of cocaine, 903 kg of cannabis, 837 kg of methamphetamine and over 4 million US dollars.
