As part of its efforts to counter the illicit diversion and trafficking of precursor chemicals used by terrorists and other criminal organizations to manufacture explosive devices, the WCO conducted a Trainer Accreditation Workshop in collaboration with Netherlands Customs from 3 to 13 March 2014.
This Workshop was part of Programme Global Shield (PGS), an international initiative launched in 2010 to monitor the trade in 14 precursor chemicals used in improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Participants were given practical training on IEDs, end-to-end supply chain management and the diversion of chemical precursors used to manufacture IEDs, as well as a demonstration of one of the latest advancements in detection technology.
Participants spent the first week of the Workshop at Netherlands Customs’ training centre facilities near the Port of Rotterdam and were trained both by WCO and Dutch experts. The second week of the Workshop was held at WCO headquarters in Brussels.
Developing a pool of qualified instructors capable of training officers in their own national languages is critical to the delivery of PGS and to fulfilling WCO Members’ training requests in this domain. The Workshop was the second in a series of training events to promote awareness of the importance of explosive precursors to the security of communities and the global supply chain. The objective is to provide customs administrations with the knowledge to implement explosive precursors training as part of their overall training activities to all border staff in order to mitigate the threat of IEDs already at the borders.