Regional Office for Capacity Building for the World Customs Organization Europe Region (ROCB Europe) hosted a Webinar under the theme of “Priorities for Strengthening International Cooperation in the Fight Against Smuggling” on 16 March 2021. 

The main purpose of the webinar, which is carried out with the participation of experts from the Central Asian Regional Information and Coordination Center (CARICC), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Southeast European Law Enforcement Center (SELEC) and ROCB Europe was to provide information on preventing smuggling, share experience on effective measures to be taken in this direction, promote international cooperation and investigation strategies, and present the latest achievements.

The webinar was attended by 21 countries with more than 70 customs officers from the Member Administrations of the World Customs Organization European Region.

In his opening remarks, Mr. Eser Çengel, Director of the ROCB Europe, noted the importance of cooperation and regional deliberations in the fight against smuggling at the strategic level, which in turn contribute to increase in the effectiveness of coordination at the international level.

The experts of the partner organizations made presentations on the activities, especially on the achievements in the fight against smuggling and the work done in order to strengthen international engagement. Further, developing and coordinating the interaction between customs and other law enforcement agencies in member states in a more effective way was among the topics evaluated.

The participants were provided with detailed information with regard to modern customs control, container transportation for cross-border drug trafficking, criminal justice cooperation in post-seizure cross-border drug investigations and technical information on containers together with methods of violations and interferences made in that regard.