The World Customs Organization (WCO), in cooperation with the Korea Customs Service (KCS) and the WCO Regional Intelligence Liaison Office for Asia and the Pacific (RILO AP), organized the WCO “Operation CATalyst 2 Training Workshop” in Seoul, Republic of Korea from 10 to 12 April 2018.
The Workshop was attended by 60 participants from 25 Member Administrations from the Asia and the Pacific Region, 3 international organizations including the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Joint Airport Interdiction Task Force (JAITF) and 4 domestic law enforcement agencies. The Workshop benefited from sponsorship by the KCS and WCO Korea Customs Cooperation Fund.
The growing threats of abusing and illicit trafficking in New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) recently is a reality that the Customs community has had to face and must be dealt with.
In 2015, in close co-operation with KCS, the WCO Secretariat launched the first operation of the CATalsyt series in order to heighten enforcement controls at the international level. Upon the successful conclusion of the first operation and the positive feedbacks by the participating Members the KCS proposed a sequel of the operation which was endorsed by the WCO Members during the 36th Enforcement Committee in March 2017.
The operation, which will be conducted in the first half of 2018, includes a capacity building component and thus this Pre-operational Training Workshop was held. The Training Workshop aimed to familiarize participants with the use of CENcomm as the secure communication platform for this Operation and also to further enhance their aptitude in identifying and analyzing threats in terms of illicit drug trafficking, in particular NPS, risk indicators, profiling and targeting and sharing of information. The training was very well received by participants and have undoubtedly contributed to the good preparation of the Operation CATalyst 2.
Please contact Mr. Sylvain Raymond, (Sylvain.Raymond@wcoomd.org) and Mr. Steve Yuen (Steve.Yuen@wcoomd.org) of WCO Drugs Programme for further information.