Cooperating between States and following the money, keys against drug trafficking

The fight against organized crimeespecially against the drug traffickinghas in the concept of “follow the money” from these activities one of its main strategies and, for this, collaboration between States at a global level is essential.

This was revealed this Tuesday and Wednesday at an international seminar held in Santo Domingo, which discussed the next strategies in the fight against drug trafficking and the pursuit of assets resulting from this activity.

Among the participants in the meeting, which was attended by representatives of thirteen countries in Latin America, the Caribbean and the European Union (EU), was the head of the Special Anti-Drug Prosecutor of Spain, Rosa Ana Morán.

follow the money

“To put an end to organized crime and especially drug trafficking, you have to do it fundamentally by going to the economy. In the first place because it is their objective and, if we deprive them of the objective of making money, drug trafficking will make no sense,” he said. Morán explained in statements to EFE.

Second, he added, because “Money is the means that allows them to maintain the (criminal) organization and, for years, that has been the strategy against organized crime and, of course, against drug trafficking”.

For Morán, there are three important elements in this fight: “Do a good patrimonial investigation when an organization is intervened; Second, to pursue money laundering, since there are organizations dedicated specifically to money laundering for drug trafficking structures.”and, in third position, have “a good asset recovery strategy. May everything that has been earned with drug trafficking return to society.”

In this sense, he cited Spain as an example, where “Everything obtained from drug trafficking is incorporated into the National Plan on Drugs and is later used for purposes that have to do with the fight against drugs, both in limiting supply and controlling demand.”

Another of the speakers at the seminar was the Italian National Anti-Mafia Prosecutor, Giovanni Melillo, who stated that “Criminal networks are groups and are integrated into financial markets, which is why it is necessary to build effective cooperation networks worldwide.”

EU-Celac meeting

A document will emerge from this seminar to be presented to the EU-Celac (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) Coordination and Cooperation Mechanism on drugs, whose members will hold their High Level Meeting in Spain next August.

The lines that the document should include, in Morán’s opinion, are “Better collaboration in the fight against money laundering and asset recovery, to make an alliance between the entire European Union and Latin America.”

“It is obvious that it is necessary. The global cocaine report was recently presented, which has shown that at this moment there is more cocaine than ever available for drug trafficking” and that this drug that is “On this side of the Atlantic (Latin America and the Caribbean) it is going to reach Europe and we have to work together and in a coordinated way.”

cocaine “It moves mainly by sea and the entire Caribbean is a departure and transit zone” of this substance, he added.

For both prosecutors, the creation of joint investigation teams will be one of the essential points to include in the text, since, Morán pointed out, “It is very important” to develop strategies that allow us to work in this way and “improve collaboration to standardize the forms of research” in both regions.

For Melillo, documents such as the one that will be presented at the meeting in August “They are relevant, but more important is the capacity of the States to build joint working methods. Drug trafficking today has enormous dimensions and puts entire regions of the planet at risk.

“We need effective, efficient responses and in this, magistrates in particular have a great responsibility and a legal duty to share information and common strategies. The instruments exist, but they need to be used effectively”indicated.

He explained that the connections between the mafia, terrorism and drug trafficking are “deep. In some cases, terrorist organizations are directly managing drug trafficking.”

Source: EFE