Beyond Borders: Public-Private Partners Advance Efforts to Protect Global Supply Chains at INCB Workshop
VIENNA, 13 February 2024 - The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) Global Rapid Interdiction of Dangerous Substances Programme opened its first global workshop on advanced targeting for operational officers, express courier and freight forwarding industry partners in Vienna, Austria. The four-day event brings together law and regulatory enforcement officers, international organization and associations, and private sector partners to address the future of counter-trafficking of synthetic drugs new psychoactive substances (NPS), opioids and related substances.
Opening the workshop, Angela Veitch, Deputy Permanent Representative of Canada to International Organizations in Vienna, noted that "Traffickers have grown increasingly adept at circumventing detection, utilizing sophisticated tactics to exploit international transportation networks and subvert existing safeguards and brazenly advertise this openly. Against this backdrop, our response must be equally dynamic and adaptive."
Under the auspices of the Global OPIOIDS Project, over 100 officers, experts and officials from 62 governments, international organizations and private sector companies and associations shared their experiences and perspectives on how to advance targeting efforts to address exploitation of legitimate postal, express courier and air cargo services for trafficking purposes. Experts discussed opportunities around data and information flags, technology tools, advanced techniques for targeting and the operational voluntary cooperation between public and private partners in promoting secure supply chains and strengthening borders.
Photo: Dawn Wilkes, Security Manager for the Universal Postal Union highlights industry cooperation at the event opening
International partner organizations such as CARICOM IMPACTS, INTERPOL, Pacific Transnational Crime Coordination Centre (PTCCC), UNODC, Universal Postal Union (UPU), the World Customs Organization (WCO) and its Regional Intelligence Liaison Offices, shared their knowledge and offer ways forward for future cooperation on the international, regional level and across private sectors. Leading industry association experts from the Federation of National Associations of Freight Forwarders and International Logistics Operators of Latin America and the Caribbean (ALACAT), the Global Express Association (GEA), Mexican Association of Freight Forwarders (AMACARGA), and the International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations (FIATA) along with leading global express courier and logistics companies along with postal and express mail services operators from around the world provided unique insights, practices and perspectives that go beyond borders.
Participants were also provided the latest updated INCB lists of 153 fentanyl-related substances including those potentially used in illicit manufacture, 69 emerging non-fentanyl opioids and the newly published list of 37 novel benzodiazepines, all with no known legitimate uses. As part of workshop exercises using the INCB Practical Guidance for Voluntary Cooperation for Express Couriers, Matthew Nice, GRIDS Programme manager encouraged Government authorities, and through them postal operators and industry shipment partners, to include these in their lists of prohibited goods, and to "refrain from any import, export or distribution of the substances on the list as a way to protect their supply chains, personnel and communities."
Photo: Workshop activities used the INCB Practical Guidance for Voluntary Cooperation for Industry to prevent trafficking
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 the generous support from Global Affairs Canada's Anti-Crime Capacity Building Program.
Click here to learn more about the GRIDS Programme
Click here to learn more about the OPIOIDS Project
Click here to learn more about the Project ION