So I was interested when the EU Border Assistance Mission (EUBAM) held a seminar on counter-narcotics recently for Ukrainian and Moldovan law enforcement agencies.
The seminar took place in the EUBAM HQ in Odesa and involved 18 Ukrainian participants from the State Service on Drugs control, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the State Border Guard Service, the Security Service, the State Customs Service, the Odesa Law Academy and the Prosecutor’s Office.
EUBAM invited two experts from the UK Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) to support the course. The hands-on experience of the SOCA experts in real-time operations against drug trafficking provoked immense interest.
The seminar also featured presentations from Austrian, Ukrainian and Moldovan law enforcement officers.
Other subjects included collaborative working and national and international legislation. The seminar also explored specific techniques involved in “controlled delivery”, a tool used by law enforcement agencies to detect organised crime.
The UK and EU remain keen to help improve the effectiveness of Ukraine’s border control and to co-operate in the fight against drug trafficking. It would be good to see some further big drug busts in the months ahead.
Leigh Turner has been the British Ambassador to Ukraine since June 2008. You can read all his blog entries at blogs.fco.gov.uk/roller/turnerenglish (in English) or blogs.fco.gov.uk/roller/turner/ (Ukrainian)
