SEACOP Project: Seminar on intelligence, research and international cooperation in the maritime domain”

In the city of Quito, Ecuador, since April 8, the “Seminar on Intelligence, Research and International Cooperation in the Maritime Domain” has been taking place, an event organized and coordinated by the Seaport Cooperation Project (SEACOP), which will have its last activities and official closing on April 11.

The Seminar is part of one of the many activities frequently carried out by the aforementioned project, headed by one of its coordinators, the Inspector of the National Police of Spain, Alfredo Díaz Sánchez, counting, on this occasion, with the participation as speaker by Prefect Martin Zampa, member of the Directorate of Criminal Intelligence and Investigations of the Argentine Naval Prefecture.

The SEACOP Project, financed by the European Union, is currently in its Phase VI, maintaining as part of its main objective, creating capabilities in the different members of the Maritime Intelligence Units (MIU, according to its acronym in English), countering the related criminal networks in West Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe and reinforce international cooperation in the fight against illicit maritime trafficking, adding, in this new stage of work, the fight against environmental crime.

In this context, SEACOP, considering the strategic importance of Ecuador as an exit point for drugs to Europe, due to its ports considered strategic by Criminal Organizations, organized an international seminar in said country focused mainly on strengthening the obtaining of intelligence in the maritime context, marinas and container shipping ports with a clear focus on International Cooperation.

Under this theme, this four-day meeting is held between the various actors involved in the fight against drug trafficking and organized crime, its objective being to establish a comprehensive strategy at the regional level that allows the implementation of joint international operations.

For this reason, within the framework of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of National Security and SEACOP, at the request of the aforementioned project, Prefect Martin Rubén Zampa, member of the Directorate, was designated to participate as an exhibitor in the aforementioned event. of Criminal Intelligence and Investigations of the Argentine Naval Prefecture, for the purposes of exposing the institutional strategy to confront drug trafficking, in the context of information exchange, international cooperation and good practices developed at the regional level.

Likewise, as part of the activities proposed by SEACOP, on April 10, the professionals who make up the Network of Anti-Drug Prosecutors of Ibero-America, including a representative of PROCUNAR, presented via zoom platform, about the international approach to persecution and challenges and tools of international cooperation. In this sense, they emphasized the importance of these themes, in order to establish an international legal strategy design that works through the Internet. This activity also had the virtual participation of members of the Brazilian Federal Police, Argentine Federal Police , and the Joint Maritime and River Intelligence and Control Units (UnICCoMF) as well as the Maritime Intelligence Division, the latter as representatives of the Argentine Naval Prefecture.

In this way, the Institution promotes and strengthens the exchange of information, International Cooperation and good practices developed at the regional level in the fight against Transnational Organized Crime, a common denominator of the countries that are part of the SEACOP Project.