Brazil police to share airport expertise with other countries

The Brazilian Federal Police (PF) launched a Program for International Cooperation in Airports (Intercops) on Wednesday (Oct. 29). The two-week program will include ten workshops, designed to share expertise in international drug trafficking and other crimes that rely largely on airport transit. Participating countries are South Africa, Germany, Angola, Australia, Qatar, France, Guyana, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Paraguay, and the United Kingdom.

“Besides sharing best practices, we will build an intelligence network connecting airport police forces. This kind of information sharing is quite common, but now we are looking to new countries we don't usually work with, including African countries and Australia,” said Roberto Troncon Filho, a Federal Police superintendent in São Paulo.

The program will operate from Guarulhos International Airport, which reports the world's largest number of cocaine seizures according to the Federal Police. In 2013, 1.3 thousand kilos were seized, resulting in 320 smugglers arrested.

Besides drug trafficking, the program will provide training for combating trafficking in persons, wildlife smuggling, illegal offshore banking, and money laundering.

“We are sharing the expertise we gained from staging major events in Brazil, such as Rio+20, the World Youth Day, the FIFA Confederations Cup, and the FIFA World Cup. We derived a wealth of experience from them,” said the superintendent.

Translated by Mayra Borges