UNODC Country Office Pakistan conducts an interagency training workshop on ‘Information Gathering and Development of Criminal-intelligence’ for field staff of the Pakistan Coast Guards and other law enforcement agencies

1st July 2021, Karachi. UNODC Country Office Pakistan (COPAK) successfully concluded an interagency training on ‘Information Gathering and Development of Criminal-intelligence’ in the Pakistan Customs’ Directorate General of Training and Research (DGTR) Karachi. The training workshop was organized, through funding support by the Government of Australia under the project entitled ‘Strengthening Pakistan’s Maritime Law Enforcement Capacity against Illicit Trafficking and Transnational Organized Crime’. 

This three-day training workshop (29 June – 1 July 2021) was participated by potential trainers and field operatives of various law enforcement agencies (LEAs), as members of Pakistan’s Inter Agency Task Forces (IATFs) on counter-narcotics, anti-smuggling and Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling (HTMS). The training workshop enhanced criminal-intelligence capacity of fourteen law enforcement officials from the Pakistan Coast Guards; Pakistan Customs; Anti Narcotics Force; Pakistan Maritime Security Agency; Excise, Taxation and Narcotics Control Department of Sindh; and the Sindh Police. It was also attended by Mr. Josh O’ Connors, Senior Officer of the Australian Federal Police (AFP), Counsellor in Islamabad and Mr. Robert McKeown, Liaison Officer of the National Crime Agency (United Kingdom) in Karachi. 

The training workshop was conducted by UNODC COPAKs trainers including Mr. Sajid Aziz Aslam – Senior Manager Training and Development; Ms. Eleonora Dibisceglia – ex Carabinieri Officer (online from Italy), Dr. Manzar Zaidi, Police Services of Pakistan – PhD (Counter Terrorism) and Dr. Naveed Ahmed, PhD (Cyber Security). Focused discussions were held on various techniques to collect information related to illicit trafficking of various kinds, including drugs, people and contraband items through the borders and other entry/exit points. The workshop raised participants’ awareness on fundamental criminal-intelligence principles, concepts, methodology and interagency information-sharing. It also covered techniques for open-source research to detect illegal criminal activity such as buying and selling of drugs and other contraband items through the Darknet, an emerging trend as highlighted in UNODC’s World Drug Report 2021. It also promoted mutual confidence and interagency cooperation.

While addressing the participants at the closing ceremony, Mr. Josh O’ Connors from the AFP appreciated UNODC’s role to organize this interagency training and bringing together various LEAs. “The Government of Australia well recognizes UNODC’s technical expertise to organize a training workshop on this one of the most important thematic areas concerning interagency cooperation. We hope that the skill sets acquired by all participants would help them in detecting and countering illegal activity more effectively. The Government of Australia shall continue to provide most-needed capacity development support to strengthen border management capacity of the Government of Pakistan”, said Mr. Connors. Towards the end, Mr. Connors handed over training certificates to the workshop participants. 

UNODC’s Country Programme for Pakistan (2016-2021) continues to facilitate specialist training of staff from various Pakistani LEAs at the national training institutes such as the Pakistan Customs’ DGTR Karachi, a centre of excellence for training Customs cadres and other counterpart LEAs in Pakistan. UNODC envisages to continuing its close support to the Government of Pakistan’s priority needs and vision to attain the Sustainable Development Goal – 16 “Promoting Peace, Justice and Institutional Development”.