illicit-trade-wco-2013

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PROJECT AIRCOP AND RELATED DEVELOPMENTS Project Aircop, launched in 2010 with funding from the European Union and co-financing by Canada, is aimed at more effectively combating illicit cocaine trafficking by air from South America, via Africa, bound for Europe, as well as at fighting airport crime in general. The scope of this Project, which is managed by the UNODC in close co-operation with INTERPOL and the WCO, is primarily West and Central Africa where the first multidisciplinary units were set up from 2011 onwards, during the first phase. Accordingly, between 2011 and 2013 JAITFs, comprising officials from Customs, Police, the Gendarmerie and other law enforcement agencies, were established in the airports of Praia in Cape Verde, Dakar in Senegal, Bamako in Mali, Lomé in Togo, Cotonou in Benin, Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire, Accra in Ghana and Lagos in Nigeria. JAITFs are continuing to be established in Central Africa during the second phase, especially in Cameroon where agreements have been signed between the Government and the UNODC to set up joint units in the airports of Douala and Yaoundé. Photo courtesy of Panalpina As part of the same aim of impeding cocaine trafficking for which the air routes are increasingly diversifying, during the third phase in 2014 Project Aircop began expanding to the so-called supply countries in South America and the Caribbean. Accordingly, a JAITF has been operational since early 2014 in the Dominican Republic, covering the Las Américas airport in the capital city and Punta Cana airport. In its wake, Panama is in the process of setting up a unit in Panama airport. Other airports will follow, especially in Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela and Jamaica. Airports situated on air routes used for this trafficking are also associated with the Project, with local liaisons facilitating the exchange of operational information and best practices with JAITF officials by means of the CENcomm, the WCO’s secure communication tool. South Africa, Kenya and Morocco, where assessment missions have been carried out, have been identified 36
DRUGS as countries "associated" with the Project and are benefitting from the opening up of the CENcomm for information exchange. This same approach is being applied to European countries considered as the final destination of illicit products. Since 2013, some 12 European countries have been connected to the CENcomm, giving the Project a multi-regional quality. This opening up to Europe is continuing with a clear interest being shown in the Project by the rest of the countries. This interest is amply justified not only by their membership of the institution which forms the primary funding agency, but also by the fact that they are located in the destination zone of the majority of the illicit products. A sound understanding of trafficking trends through the information conveyed by the network developed is consequently enabling them to further hone the control strategies implemented at their air borders. The WCO CENcomm and INTERPOL’s I-24/7 database enable secure information transmission between airports and the consultation of air passengers’ criminal records, thus facilitating the JAITFs’ risk analysis work. The WCO periodically supplies analytical reports summarizing the JAITFs’ activities, supplemented by information on related criminal activities drawn from its various databases, as well as from the INTERPOL databases, in order to target controls more effectively. It is nevertheless worth mentioning that the pace of Project Aircop actually increased following the analysis of the results of the first Operation Cocair, carried out by the WCO in West Africa in 2008 in response to the emerging threat posed by the opening up of a new route for cocaine from South America to Europe, transiting Africa. That analysis made it possible to focus on the need to build the capacities of airport services in some African airports affected by cocaine trafficking, particularly in terms of training, facilities, work equipment and drug detection tools, and, most importantly, to pool the efforts of the various enforcement services operating within the same airport environment. The organizational arrangements for the operations remained the same and were included in the Project Aircop annual programme, in order to test the mechanism in real time. Operations Cocair II and III were consequently conducted by the WCO in a number of African airports, in partnership with the UNODC and INTERPOL. An increase was noted in terms of seizures of prohibited goods, thanks to the continued control reflexes among the enforcement services, including the first JAITFs to be set up. Operation Cocair IV, conducted in 2013, coincided with the establishment of the eight Project Aircop JAITFs and provided an opportunity to test their operational capabilities alongside some 30 airport units from countries in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. The full results of this Operation are available in a separate article. It is, however, noteworthy that the Project Aircop JAITFs were particularly successful during this Operation, making a total of 23 seizures accounting for approximately 30 per cent of the overall seizures. The products intercepted by the JAITFs included 1,150 kg of cannabis, 21.6 kg of cocaine, 4.2 kg of methamphetamine, 2.5 kg of heroin and € 26,870 in currency within the most important of the nine categories of products listed. The quantities intercepted by the JAITFs were significant in terms of the seizures as a whole during the Operation. The diversity of products intercepted bears witness to the JAITFs’ desire to discharge the full range of functions assigned to them as regards combating all forms of illicit trafficking in the airport environment. The highly rewarding experience of Operation Cocair IV should culminate by making the JAITFs permanent components of the national machinery for combating airport crime. Some divides and rivalries with local structures within this machinery, which had come to light when the JAITFs were being set up, are beginning to wane. The JAITFs are working to this end, by making wise use of the platform available to them and continuing to conduct anti-trafficking activities in the airport environment, in concert with other airport stakeholders. In addition to the management of the airport environment, information sharing between airport units, a practice tested during Operation Cocair IV, is currently a core activity of the JAITFs given the latter’s 37 ILLICIT TRADE REPORT 2013
Page 1: Illicit Trade Report 2013
Page 5 and 6: FOREWORD The 2013 edition of the WC
Page 7 and 8: INTRODUCTION part. Therefore, while
Page 9: INTRODUCTION For Customs administra
Page 12 and 13: end, all amounts of tablets were co
Page 14 and 15: Table 4. Number of seizures by drug
Page 16 and 17: Chart 1. Top 10 reporting countries
Page 18 and 19: Panama Customs seized 200 kg of coc
Page 20 and 21: 60 kg of cocaine were discovered in
Page 22 and 23: 30 kg of cannabis resin, concealed
Page 24 and 25: Fresh khat, transported in a passen
Page 26 and 27: 63 kg of amphetamine, concealed in
Page 28 and 29: 6.3 kg of amphetamine and 0.895 kg
Page 30 and 31: Table 18. Captagon: number of seizu
Page 32 and 33: 2 kg of methamphetamine, concealed
Page 34 and 35: Points (NCPs), sending them a daily
Page 36 and 37: Official inauguration of the WCO Re
Page 40: understanding that optimum results
Page 44 and 45: Customs administrations play an ess
Page 46 and 47: The added-value demonstrated in thi
Page 48 and 49: ILLEGAL TRADE IN WILDLIFE The Conve
Page 50 and 51: Traditional Asian medicine containi
Page 52 and 53: Ivory in passenger’s luggage seiz
Page 54 and 55: from Southern and Eastern Africa to
Page 56 and 57: Smuggling Members in Asia reported
Page 58 and 59: 20 Years of Dedication towards Cons
Page 60 and 61: Panama, established under the UNODC
Page 63 and 64: Machinery to manufacture counterfei
Page 65 and 66: IPR Table 1. Top 15 countries by qu
Page 67 and 68: IPR Chart 2. Top counterfeit brands
Page 69 and 70: IPR These figures support the resul
Page 71 and 72: IPR Typical way of packaging counte
Page 73 and 74: IPR Electric appliances intercepted
Page 75: IPR APPENDIX. UNIT CONVERSION RULES
Page 78 and 79: Seizure of 240,000 cigarettes hidde
Page 80 and 81: When turning to figures for raw tob
Page 82 and 83: It is interesting to note an increa
Page 84 and 85: Counterfeit cigarettes Counterfeit
Page 86 and 87: It has been pointed out that in som
Page 88 and 89:
Map 1. Countries participating at t
Page 90 and 91:
Project Crocodile Project Crocodile
Page 92 and 93:
Table 9. Survey response results No
Page 94 and 95:
number of seizures with a total of
Page 96 and 97:
investigations, as well as improve
Page 98 and 99:
80,000 Canadian dollars concealed i
Page 100 and 101:
Russia. In many countries fireworks
Page 102 and 103:
Bow with arrows Photo courtesy of C
Page 104 and 105:
Concealed MK2 style hand grenades P
Page 106 and 107:
INDUSTRIAL EXPLOSIVES, THEIR PARTS
Page 108:
In a special action, the WCO teamed
Page 111 and 112:
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ASEAN-WEN BCN
Page 113 and 114:
NOTES 111 ILLICIT TRADE REPORT 2013
Page 116:
Publisher World Customs Organizatio
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