INCB Launches SNOOP: an additional technology tool to help Governments detect and dismantle online synthetic drug and chemical markets

Vienna, 20 January 2026

Figure 1. SNOOP flagging marketplaces selling emerging fentanyl precursors at the GRIDS Cyber-Communication Centre (GC3)
Figure 1. SNOOP flagging marketplaces selling emerging fentanyl precursors at the GRIDS Cyber-Communication Centre (GC3)
 
Vienna, 20 January 2026 — The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) today announced the global launch of its Scanning of Novel Opioids on Online Platforms (SNOOP) tool. The latest in a series of advanced technologies launched by INCB, SNOOP helps governments and their trusted private sector partners to detect and disrupt global online sales and distribution of synthetic opioids, fentanyls and related precursors strengthening borders, governance and communities.
 
Part of INCB’s proprietary advanced technologies under the GRIDS Programme, SNOOP  enables Governments to continuously monitor suspicious wholesalers across over 130 of the world’s largest online marketplaces and scans for hundreds of dangerous synthetic substances on INCB lists of emerging benzodiazepines, synthetic non-fentanyl opioids, and fentanyls and related precursors with no known legitimate use. SNOOP AI-enabled risk-profiling identifies suspicious modus operandi of traffickers exploiting manufacturers, online marketplaces, logistics providers, and online financial and cryptocurrency services, providing governments critical information for enforcement agencies.
 
SNOOP and has already been used, on a pilot phase, by some governments, Project Ion NPS Task Force members and their private sector partners to detect exploitation by traffickers of legitimate services and has led to the dismantling of over 200,000 marketplaces vendors and companies across global e-commerce platforms, social media platforms, sound streaming services and more. Through generous financial support by the Government of the United States Department of State Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, INCB is making the technology available to all governments as further tool against transnational organized crime also in anticipation of the forthcoming ratification of the United Nations Convention against Cybercrime.
 
Figure 2. CHEMPROFILER provides real-time border identification of emerging dangerous substances

Figure 2. CHEMPROFILER provides real-time border identification of emerging dangerous substances  

SNOOP is integrated with the IONICS Suite of INCB proprietary counter-trafficking tools, including GRIDS Intelligence real-time strategic targeting and INCB’s CHEMPROFILER—which allows frontline officers to use a smartphone the possibility of immediate identification of suspicious substances encountered at borders and warehouses by leveraging the IONICS library of millions of signals in real-time. Over 2,200 law and regulatory enforcement officers have access to the IONICS Suite.
 
The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) is the independent and quasi-judicial monitoring body for the implementation of the United Nations international drug control conventions established under the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961. The Board's Global Rapid Interdiction of Dangerous Substances (GRIDS) Programme, and its Project ION and OPIOIDS Project, are being implemented in line with the specific mandate provided to INCB by article 35 subparagraph (g) of the 1961 Convention, that requires countries to provide the Board information on illicit drug activities enabling the Board to support Governments' capabilities in addressing drug trafficking, by providing real-time communications and training to facilitate information exchange and intelligence development to interdict traffic.