The insider threat within ports and airports remains one of the most challenging and mercurial areas for law enforcement authorities to deal with. The insider threats usage of corrupt employees (facilitators) within the working environments of ports and airports has been very successful in the smuggling of contraband worldwide as these particular personnel possess profound knowledge of their domains and are able to use their positions to exploit known security weaknesses in order to both place (rip on) or remove (rip off) contraband. The startling scale, longevity and ingenuity of these facilitators represents a global law enforcement predicament.

The UNODC-WCO Container Control Programme has always undertaken meaningful activities to highlight this problematic area within their classroom trainings and also during practical workings in their ports and airports. More recently the CCP-Air Trainers have developed a more in-depth and panoramic training module concerning the insider threat which they hope to deliver to all current and future Air Cargo Control Units (ACCUs). It was considered by them that in addition to normal trainings, a longer stand-alone event on this subject should be a major prerequisite for the ACCUs to understand more profoundly and then develop effective and practical countermeasures within their airports against the insider threat as part of their daily duties.

Last month four separate online events each consisting of three days on the insider threat were delivered to the ACCUs at the airports in Islamabad, Karachi, and Lahore in Pakistan and in Colombo in Sri Lanka. The training included presentations on the different methodologies and concealments used by facilitators. In addition, exercises were given to the participants on how they would deal with potential scenarios of the insider threat based on their legal powers. Counter measures against the insider threat and case studies cemented the learnings. Excellent feedback was received from the participants after the training about the usefulness of the events and how the ACCUs would develop their future controls to combat this area of concern.

It is envisaged that future events will be extended in duration and will include practical working sessions in the airport environment.