NDLEA, World Customs explore partnership to tighten noose on drug cartels
By Nnamdi Okosieme
Officials of the World Customs Organisation(WCO), on Wednesday held talks with officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency(NDLEA) at the anti-narcotics agency’s headquarters in Abuja.
The WCO delegation led by Ms Lucia Sebastiani and Mr. Anderson Leme Siqueira. and NDLEA officials led by Barrister Shadrach Hauna, discussed ways to partner to tighten the noose on drug cartels using the Colibri project.
The Colibri project is a collaborative effort by the WCO and the European Union (EU) to tackle the challenge represented by organised crime in Latin America and Caribbean, Western and Central Africa.
The project (Monitoring and Controlling General Aviation along the Cocaine Route), implemented within the framework of the Global Illicit Flows Programme funded by the EU, targets specifically General Aviation (GA), a vector concerning the gamut of operations of civil aviation for purposes other than commercial transport.
Although most civil airports are open to general aviation, many secondary aerodromes are not subject to administration fees, landing or parking charges, operating restrictions or controls. Moreover, general aviation is not subject to the same police or customs inspection mechanisms, and flight security measures are substantially relaxed, even in highly regulated areas. This represents an opportunity for organized crime, and offers a number of advantages to traffickers. This is a discreet, fast mode of transport, which can use smaller airports where the law enforcement agencies are often absent.
The COLIBRI Project is thus conceived to help tackle the challenge of improving security in this specific channel, which is sensitive in both trafficking and security terms, as well as for tax reasons.
The visit of the WCO to the NDLEA is coming at a time the anti-narcotics agency is ramping up effort to reduce the trafficking of drugs by Nigerians and foreigners.
Last week, operatives of the NDLEA in a space of three days smashed drug cartels in Lagos, seizing nearly one million Euros in cash and drugs worth millions of naira. In one operation, the anti-narcotics agency smashed a notorious drugs ring in Lagos arresting its kingpin after an extended gun duel with members of the cartel.
