Officers of Mozambique’s National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC) participate in exchange visit with Italian counterparts

 

Rome (Italy) – Illicit trafficking and other transnational organized crimes continue to represent a significant threat to peace, stability and hinder development in Mozambique, a country part of a strategic corridor for heroin and cocaine trafficking.

The international community is playing a key role in supporting Mozambican authorities in their efforts to effectively address these challenges imposed by criminal activities. To that end, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) organized an exchange visit for a group of officers from the National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC) of Mozambique to Rome, Italy, from 29 November to 1 December 2022.

The visit allowed five (5) SERNIC officials to meet their Italian counterparts, visit several facilities and technical laboratories of the Carabinieri – Italy’s national gendarmerie and one of its main law enforcement agencies –, as well as meet high-level officials of the Forensic science laboratories of the Carabinieri Force (RaCIS).

The group also visited the dactyloscopy registry room to observe the whole process of fingerprint collection, validation, and different database crosschecking procedures, including criminal records. 

On this occasion, Mozambican participants discussed crime scene management, collection of evidence and forensic investigation with counterparts and exchanged best practices, technologies and procedures. 

They further met high-rank officials of the Raggruppamento Operativo Speciale (ROS) of the Carabinieri, the agency’s Special Operations Group, to exchange on matters of complex crimes, such as Transnational Organized Crime and Terrorism.

“This opportunity served as a platform for Italian and Mozambican authorities to strengthen their relations in the field of crime and security, allowing for fruitful discussions on possible future collaborations related to trainings, capacity building, and information sharing”, said Mr. Antonio De Vivo, the Officer-in-Charge of UNODC’s Programme Office in Mozambique.

Indeed, fostering formal and informal cooperation on tackling transnational crime among States, including in terms of sharing of good practices, is an integral part of UNODC’s approach to technical assistance, which has so far brought about very positive results.

This visit was generously sponsored by the Kingdom of Norway and the German Federal Office, in the framework of UNODC’s implementation of the Maputo Roadmap – a strategic document guiding UNODC’s support in Mozambique – and, particularly, actions aimed at countering transnational crimes and illicit trafficking.