21/12/2023
The Spanish Anti-Drug Prosecutor's Office and the Network of Anti-Drug Prosecutors of Ibero-America organise a working session in Valencia with the participation of the European cooperation programme COPOLAD III
Prosecutors from Latin America and Europe specialised in operations against drug trafficking have shared experiences and strengthened their cooperation in the framework of a working conference organised in Valencia from 11 to 14 December 2023, under the title ‘Transnational investigations on drug trafficking: alliances between Latin American and European Anti-Drug Prosecutor’s Offices‘.
The European Union cooperation programme COPOLAD III, led by the FIIAPP, participated in the meeting, contributing the results of its work on special investigative techniques and on the gender perspective in cases of drug trafficking and human trafficking.
The meeting was attended by prosecutors from Spain, France, Portugal, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Paraguay and the Dominican Republic, as well as representatives of the FIIAPP, the RFAI, the Conference of Ministers of Justice of Ibero-American Countries (COMJIB).
The conference began with a meeting of the working group of the RFAI (Network of Anti-Drug Prosecutors of Ibero-America) which, with technical assistance from COPOLAD III, is responsible for preparing a protocol on the use of special investigative techniques in the investigation of organised and transnational drug trafficking. The objective is to formulate a diagnosis of the domestic and international norms applicable to these special techniques, as well as their practical functioning, both domestically and from the perspective of international cooperation. This diagnosis should lead to the drafting of an action protocol to serve as an operational guide for prosecutors and officials of the Public Prosecutor’s Offices in Ibero-America.
Subsequently, the annual meeting of the contact points of the Network of Anti-Drug Prosecutors of Ibero-America, which brings together most of the Latin American countries, plus Spain and Portugal, took place. During the meeting, COPOLAD III presented a first advance of the diagnosis on undercover agents, as well as the initial results of its work on the gender dimension in the relationship between drug trafficking and human trafficking, an action developed in collaboration with three AIAMP networks. The aim is to understand the relationship between manifestations of organised crime and gender, concretised in human trafficking and drug trafficking, with a view to strengthening the capacities of AIAMP prosecutors to comprehensively address investigations where the international drug trade has a differentiated impact on women victims of trafficking.
On the 13th and 14th, Latin American prosecutors were joined by anti-drug prosecutors from different European countries. These two days, inaugurated by the Spanish Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortíz, the President of the Generalitat Valenciana, Carlos Mazón, and the Chief Prosecutor of the Spanish Anti-Drug Prosecutor’s Office, Rosa Ana Morán, were dedicated to strengthening cooperation between prosecutors’ offices on both sides of the Atlantic, with particular attention to special investigative techniques – controlled deliveries and undercover agents – and joint investigation teams.
In addition, the FIIAPP and the International Italo-Latin American Organisation (IILA) presented the European Commission-funded cooperation programmes COPOLAD and PAcCTO 2.0, two powerful tools at the disposal of Latin American and Caribbean countries, as well as EU Member States, to strengthen cooperation between the two regions in the design of drug policy, the fight against drug trafficking and actions against the laundering of financial assets.
