United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

Central America and the Caribbean

Workshop on synthetic drugs and precursors

Dominican Republic, 27 November 2019. The Coordinator of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime SMART Global Programme for Latin America and the Caribbean, Luis Ruiz, gave a workshop on synthetic drugs to 51 officials from health and security institutions in the Dominican Republic.

The training covered topics such as synthetic drug trends in the Americas, synthetic drugs, Fentanyl, UNODC science and laboratory services and the use of the Trunarc device.

The workshop greatly benefited from the collaboration with a forensic expert from the US DEA, Associate Laboratory Director, DEA/Southeast Laboratory, who shared her expertise on the identification of synthetic drugs and NPS.
The workshop was attended by officials from the National Drug Control Directorate (DNCD), the National Institute of Forensic Sciences (INACIF), Customs, the Post Office, the Dominican Drug Observatory, the Specialized Corps for Airport Security of Civil Aviation and Public Health.
This workshop arose from a request made by the President of the National Drug Council of the Dominican Republic, Rafael Guerrero Peralta, with the purpose of strengthening the capacities of members of counter-narcotics agencies and forensic laboratories.

Ruiz had the opportunity to meet with Guerrero to exchange relevant information about the proliferation of new psychoactive substances worldwide and the importance of generating early warnings to face this problem.