Chrysochoidis: International cooperation to erect a wall against criminal drug networks – 2024-09-25 06:10:49

The international anti-drug conference jointly organized by the Ministry of Citizen Protection and the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) started today in a central hotel in Athens. The conference brings together representatives from Drug Enforcement Agencies from 132 countries in order to exchange information on how these rings operate, but also to discuss how they can cooperate even better in order to achieve greater blows to the global drug trafficking cartels.

The Minister of Citizen Protection, Michalis Chrysochoidis, today welcomed the participants to the conference saying: “It is a great honor to hold this conference in Greece.

We welcome all of you who daily fight against the crime, which is one of the cruelest, most despicable and inhuman that dominates humanity, the drug trade. I congratulate you all for this battle, the self-sacrifice, the dedication, so that we can reduce and finally eliminate this great scourge of humanity, drugs.”

Afterwards, Mr. Chrysochoidis made a special reference to the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), stressing that it is a constant ally and partner in the fight against drugs, while pointing out that this collaboration has brought many successes.

Speaking afterwards, the minister emphasized that based on his many years of experience as a political head of the police, cooperation in the fight against drugs must be based on two principles.

“The first is that you do it alone, it can’t do anything, very few things. When you pursue a goal almost all over the world, you obviously need a lot of international partners, each in their own area, each with their own role, in order to have a positive result.”

That is why this conference is of great value, Mr. Chrysochoidis emphasized, since, as he said, there are representatives from almost all the countries of the world and its result can make this international cooperation more efficient.

Then the Minister of Citizen Protection referred to the impressive development of the port of Piraeus in recent years, due to which the arrivals of ships from Latin America, where most drugs are produced, have increased dramatically. Because of this, as he pointed out, international criminal groups have developed in the wider region in order to traffic drugs in every direction in Europe.

“This new element obliges us to plan in such a way that we concentrate and commit forces, with planning, with information to be able to capture, seize, destroy, as large quantities as possible.”

The second principle to which Mr. Chrysochoidis referred is that of interoperability between services. “Police forces alone cannot do many things. We need interoperability. We also need assistance, participation, integration with other services, especially those dealing with the financial side of crime.

In other words, how will we be able to follow the money, how will we be able to see all these revenues where they are allocated and where they are headed. Through the national authorities of each country but also through international organizations and partnerships to follow the path of money. We need technical assistance, good technology and legislative tools to be able to become very effective, beyond our operational capacity.”

“International cooperation and interoperability are the basic principles, pillars on which to build and improve further and erect a wall against these criminal networks,” said the minister.

Mr. Chrysochoidis closed his greeting by saying “allow me to thank the DEA here in Athens with whom as a minister I work extremely well, the US embassy, ​​the ambassador and his associates, the Attica Security Directorate and the director of the Narcotics Prosecution Sub-Directorate , Spyros Tsardakas, an excellent officer, and finally let me say that the operation of a new service of the Directorate for Combating Organized Crime begins in a few days, which was formed and will be inaugurated in a few days and which I believe that the prosecution, treatment and the management of the drug issue will become even more effective.”

For her part, the head of the DEA, Anne Milgram, initially emphasized the excellent cooperation that exists with the Greek authorities, while she then emphasized that drug trafficking has changed dramatically in recent years. “The threat of synthetic drugs is the greatest we have ever seen,” said the US official, stressing that in the US in 2022 more than 100 thousand people died due to fentanyl and methamphetamine, which are synthetic drugs.

At the same time, he emphasized that US authorities are monitoring billions of dollars “changing hands” around the world through cryptocurrencies while tracking and mapping a drug supply chain that is spreading globally. The only way to defeat these criminal networks that operate around the world, as noted by the head of the DEA, is through the development of multifaceted and international cooperation and the exchange of even more information, and this is one of the main purposes of this conference.