A new Council of Europe-supported online tool* – a handbook designed to help drug enforcement officials to increase the number of arrests of drug smugglers – is being launched in Strasbourg on 6 June 2018.
The Council of Europe‘s Pompidou group, together with Eurojust, Europol, Interpol, OSCE (Organisation for Security and cooperation in Europe) and SELEC (South East European Law enforcement Center) created the online handbook with information from participating states.
The new online guidebook is designed for law enforcement and the judiciary to make controlled deliveries of illicit drugs more efficient.
Controlled deliveries allow illicit or suspect consignments to pass through the territory of one or more countries. These deliveries are made under the supervision of the authorities of states involved, with the purpose of investigating an offence and fully identifying the persons involved in it.
Although such schemes have existed for many years already, they have not always worked as planned because law enforcement officials in one country may not have been in contact with the right officials in another country, or because inadequate information on drug enforcement legislation in another country prevented the schemes from working properly.
The new online handbook, initiated by the Council of Europe’s drug policy network, the Pompidou Group, is structured to provide information to law enforcement and judiciary in an easily accessible and constantly updated manner. The handbook is expected to enhance co-operation across borders, and improve the international co-ordination that is required to effectively carry out controlled delivery operations.
* Because of security reasons, the online tool cannot be accessed by media or the public.