12/04/2018
The programme financed by the EU covers 34 countries, aiming to identify and investigate drug routes through international cooperation.
The 2nd Bi-regional Meeting between Latin America, the Caribbean and the European Union on “Effective mechanisms for interrupting the routes taken by the illicit cocaine trade” was organised by the COPOLAD programme for the purpose of exchanging experience and good practice in combating the illicit drug trade.
No fewer than 34 countries were brought together in Quito (Ecuador) by the programme financed by the European Union and managed by FIIAPP to tackle the task of identifying the cocaine routes, and analysing the police investigation, where the role of international cooperation in the fight against this transnational crime becomes especially relevant.
The delegations comprised experts from police teams engaged in fighting the drug trade, military units and customs services, as well as representatives of the Inter-american Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD), the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and directors of other EU projects, such as SEACOP and AIRCOP.
The meeting was chaired by the Government of Ecuador and Spain’s Intelligence Center for Counter-Terrorism and Organized Crime (CITCO). Representatives of both spoke at the inaugural meeting, alongside Spain’s EU Head of Delegation. The Ecuadorian bodies hosting the meeting were the Ministry of Foreign Relations and Human Mobility, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Defence, the Technical Secretariat for Drug Control (SETED) and Ecuador’s National Police Force.
