Between 22-26 July 2024, 30 law enforcement officers from the two hub countries in America, the Dominican Republic and Chile, participated at the training course on virtual asset investigation organised by INTERPOL and the Dominican Republic under the framework of the Joint European Union - Council of Europe GLACY-e project.
While The National Intelligence Directorate and the Latin America and Caribbean Cyber Competence Centre (LAC4) supported the activity from the Dominican Republic side, Europol, the Spanish National Police, and Binance supported the lead instructors.
The Ambassador for Cyber-Affairs, also GLACY-e National Coordinator of the Dominican Republic, and Chair of INTERPOL’s Cyber-Americas Working Group, welcomed everyone on behalf of the Council of Europe and INTERPOL. He underlined the relevance of virtual asset investigations and the impact of instructional development for more sustainable capacity building.
In his opening remark, the Director of the DNI, highlighted:
“…At the national level, we have noticed the use of crypto assets in multiple of these threats. That is why we are gathered today with the common interest of developing advanced investigative capabilities and adopting emerging technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing, among others, in collaboration with friendly agencies like INTERPOL.”
In the classroom, several other instructors from Chile, Dominican Republic, and Paraguay audited the training contents as INTERPOL-Certified Instructors, participating in the Instructor Development Courses (IDCs) that examine the soft skills, contributed in the design of a locally grown course on virtual asset investigation for their respective law enforcement training institutions.
This collaborative initiative not only strengthened the technical skills of participating officers in handling complex virtual asset investigations but also laid the groundwork for a comprehensive, locally adapted curriculum in this domain.
The GLACY-e Project and INTERPOL will continue to bolster the regional experts and the hub countries. This collaboration will aid in developing and delivering regionally owned activities on technical topics of cybercrime and electronic evidence, ensuring a sustainable stream of law enforcement capabilities.
GLACY-e project webpage