14 December 2016 - A specialized training course for law enforcement officers in Latin America focused on enhancing skills in combating financial crime and money-laundering investigations was held in Bogota, Colombia.
Under the frame
work of CRIMJUST project funded by EU Cocaine Route Programme (CRP), a training on combating financial crimes linked to cocaine trafficking was organized by INTERPOL's Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes and Drugs units in partnership with the Colombia National Police, with support from experts from Brazil, Chile, Colombia and the US Drug Enforcement Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The event was held in the realm of the 17th Global Programme on Anti-Corruption, Financial Crimes and Asset Recovery in Bogota, Colombia from 5 to 9 December 2016.
The session gathered 40 senior investigators, judges and prosecutors from 11 countries in Latin America (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay). The participants shared experiences and best practices for investigating cases of corruption and money laundering connected to illicit drug trafficking.
During the training, participants discussed, inter alia, the links between cocaine smuggling and corruption including bribery, laundering of the illicit proceeds, international cooperation in corruption and asset recovery investigations.
With the objective of fostering regional cooperation to tackle organized crime, the training was organized to strengthen and facilitate secure information exchange using INTERPOL systems and evidence management in anti-corruption and money laundering investigations.
Under the framework of the CRIMJUST project funded by EU Cocaine Route Programme, UNODC and its partners (INTERPOL and TI) aim to assist Member States to enhance their capacity and integrity of criminal justice institutions to detect, investigate, prosecute and adjudicate illicit cocaine trafficking cases, and to foster cooperation at the interregional level for effective action to tackle drug trafficking and related organized crime.
For more information:
- European Union "Cocaine Route Programme"
- INTERPOL
