Capacity building and regional operational cooperation to address NPS trafficking in central and west Africa
11-14 April 2023, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire - The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) Global Rapid Interdiction of Dangerous Substances (GRIDS) Programme organized a twinning programme coupled with a training hosted by the Ivorian narcotics units for focal points from Benin, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, DRC and Niger to strengthen the information sharing and the development of actionable intelligence among law enforcement officers.
The four-day twinning-training programme provided capacity building activities to the law enforcement officers from the five countries through INCB's international initiatives and proprietary tools that share real time information and develop actionable intelligence to promote collaboration among relevant authorities and address NPS trafficking in the region. Mr. Amari Bedi Olivier, GRIDS Regional Technical Officer (RTO) for West and Central Africa, delivered training on the effective use of Project ION Incident Communication System (IONICS) and the GRIDS Intelligence HD targeting platforms for information-sharing and investigative purposes. The participants also received awareness raising and safe handling approaches to effectively respond to the threat of new psychotropic substances (NPS), non-medical synthetic opioids, and other fentanyl-related substances in the region. Experts from each of the participating countries also presented their current efforts on tackling NPS in their region. As part of the programme, INCB also facilitated field visits to strategical control points including the local forensic laboratory of the police, the regional postal warehouse, and the main narcotics enforcement unit of Côte d'Ivoire.
This INCB twinning programme provided a good opportunity for the 5 countries to interact with each other and benefit from their experience for better inter-regional operational collaboration. The networking of these countries through this mission should contribute to the experience sharing and an improvement in the monitoring of illicit trafficking in NPS in both regions.
In parallel with this activity, the 17 April 2023, a meeting was held at the Abidjan Customs academy with the management staff and the teachers to whom the GRIDS Programme was presented.
The Board's Global Rapid Interdiction of Dangerous Substances (GRIDS) Programme and Project ION and OPIOIDS Project support Governments' capacity to respond to changing trafficking, illicit manufacture, marketing and sales of NPS, non-medical synthetic opioids and fentanyl-related substances by providing real-time communication, facilitating information exchange and intelligence development that interdict distribution of dangerous substances.
The GRIDS Programme is supported by the Governments of Canada, Japan and the United States. This event was made possible through generous support from the Government of United States.
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