INCB builds e-commerce industry partnerships to address internet trafficking of dangerous substances

Hanoi, Viet Nam - 6 December, Governments and industries provided practical experiences that stopped trafficking in dangerous substances via the Internet at INCB's 2nd international workshop on Public-Private Partnerships. The workshop, the fifth in a series of specialized expert meetings and industry partners and the second workshops focusing on exploitation of legitimate e-commerce, highlighted practical and voluntary partnership with industry to make illicit sales of non-medical fentanyl-related and other dangerous substances more difficult. 70 participants from 21 countries and territories, 4 international organizations and 9 representatives from private-sector partners took part in the three-day event organized by INCB.

Photo: Opening addresses by Deputy Director Pol. Sr. Col. Duc Binh Ciunter Narcotic Police Department of Viet Nam Ministry of Public Security and INCB Board Member Dr. Viroj Sumyai

In his opening address, Police Senior Coronel Do Duc Binh, Deputy Director of Counter Narcotic Police Department of the Ministry of Public Security, noted the importance of INCB platforms to counter trafficking of new drugs and chemicals in South-East Asia and to, "strengthen international cooperation in relation to information exchange and handling of cases related to precursors and NPS." 

The training builds Government and regional agencies' capacities to identify, interdict and exchange information and trafficking intelligence on non-scheduled substances like dangerous fentanyl-related analogues and related pre-precursors, through the global communication systems, IONICS and PICS. Mr. Fumio Ito, manager of INCB Project ION, stated that, "through our sharing global focal point network, INCB is uniquely positioned to monitor and provide real-time tracking of trafficking incidents occurring through the international post, express mail and courier services and freight forwarders, making this intelligence available to law and regulatory enforcement officers in real-time."

 
Photo: 70 participants from 21 countries and territories, 4 international organizations and 9 representatives from private-sector partners took part in the 2nd international workshop

"In Viet Nam in recent years, the trafficking of new psychoactive substances, synthetic drugs and precursors through the Internet has become very complicated", stated Deputy Director Pol. Sr. Col. Do Duc Binh, Counter Narcotic Police Department of Viet Nam Ministry of Public Security. "They [traffickers] know technological techniques to conceal their personal information and methods of communication, which is found to be very difficult for the functional forces to detect or prevent."

"INCB's cooperative agreements with the World Customs Organization (WCO) and the Universal Postal Union (UPU) play an important role in the practical results achieved with the private sector", said Mr. Fumio Ito, manager of INCB Project ION. "This partnership of government and industries builds on successes from achieved from the Board's first international expert meeting on Internet Trafficking in Opioids held in Vienna in January 2018, and actually stops vendors from trafficking these substances. Experts from this week's meeting recommended INCB further expand voluntary cooperation with e-commerce and Internet services to block the flow of dangerous substances with no know legitimate uses.

The Board's global Project ION, OPIOIDS Project and Project PRISM are responding to the 2018 United Nations General Assembly Resolution 73/192 , call for "International cooperation to address and counter the world drug problem", by responding to requests by Member States to enhance their law enforcement capacity to detect and identify new psychoactive substances and promote cross-border cooperation and information-sharing to through the use of the Board's specialized tools and projects.

The workshop made possible through the generous support of the Government of Japan.

Click here to learn more about the Project ION

Click here to learn more about the OPIOIDS Project

Click here to learn more about the Project PRISM

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