Mid-term Review and Consultation Meeting of Operation Mekong Dragon IV

01 Sep 2022

RILO AP and UNODC co-hosted OMD IV mid-term review and consultation meeting in a hybrid manner, in order to keep the momentum of the ongoing operation and to analyze the risk indicators for potential collaborative investigation. Among 24 participants, representatives from 19 participating administrations visited Bangkok, Thailand from 17 to 18 August 2022 to attend the in-person meeting.

 

Mr. Giovanni Broussard, Regional Coordinator of the UNODC Environment Team delivered introductory remarks, and Mr. Cheon-Jeong Park, Head of RILO AP also made welcome remarks. Ms. Beijing Wang, Acting Director of the International Enforcement Cooperation Division of Anti-Smuggling Bureau of China Customs, and Ms. Pham Thi Thu Huong, Head of the Intelligence Division of Anti-Smuggling and Investigation of Vietnam Customs, also conveyed messages to welcome all the participants warmly.

 

After recapitulating an outline of the operation by Mr. Zhiqiang Tao, Program Officer of the UNODC Environment Team, Mr. Chunwan Shi, Intelligence Analyst of RILO AP delivered a presentation regarding OMD IV updates and statistics. He gave full details of seizures, trends, and issues encountered. A series of presentations followed. Vietnam, China, Thailand, India, Bangladesh Customs shared their accomplishments, challenges, actions taken, lessons learned, and etc.

 

On the second day of the meeting, Mr. Joel Carruthers of Austria Border Force reported trend analysis and methods of concealment for drugs. Mr. Reiner Pungs presented the complexity of chemical precursor trafficking. Finally, Ms. Yuko Watanabe, CEN manager of RILO AP, gave training on the exchange of information through CENcomm. She explained how to input seizure cases into the system and also reminded participants that frequent error items needed extra attention.


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