The UNODC-NATO partnership: building capacity against drug trafficking

"The UNODC-NATO partnership is one such example of the unique technical cooperation initiatives that provides an excellent opportunity for cross fertilisation of expertise and experiences for multiple law enforcement officers to build capacities to address the complex challenges of counter narcotics in the region," said Ashita Mittal, Regional Representative at the UNODC Regional Office for Central Asia about counter-narcotics training project that NATO has been developing with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) since early 2016.

As a part of the project, the first dog-handling, counter-narcotics training course for ten Central Asian officers started at the Dog Handling Centre of the State Border Guard of Latvia on 27 November 2017 in Rezekne, eastern Latvia.

Since the project began in 2016, 203 counter narcotics officers have received training, while a total of 450 are due to have passed through the NATO-UNODC courses by the end of 2017.

Detailed information about the training and the project can be found at the official website of NATO.