[EN-SEA] U.N Box-Profiling Detecs Contraband in Latin America

LATIN American port authorities are seizing more illegal drugs and counterfeit goods along container routes owing to a United Nations-backed initiative, initially intended to improve container security, that has been "showing growing success" since its inception six years ago.

The announcement follows the first seizure of containers carrying illicit goods by the Panamanian inter-agency profiling unit at the Pacific Port of Balboa under the Container Control Programme, a joint project launched by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the inter-governmental World Customs Organisation.

"In only three weeks, the unit, which started operations in November, seized four containers from China, destined for Chile and Venezuela," the UNODC said in a statement.

The Container Control Programme is designed to assist port authorities in establishing profiling systems and in using modern control techniques to detect illegal goods in containers without causing disruptions in the commerce of legal goods.

"Inter-agency officials decided to inspect the respective containers because the declared goods were not consistent with the activity of the exporters. Large consignments of counterfeit T-shirts, fake branded shoes and towels were seized," reports the UN News Centre.

It said that container monitoring officials in Guayaquil, Ecuador earlier seized 25 kilogrammes of cocaine from a container filled with bananas that was estimated to be worth US$1.7 million in Belgium at the retail level.

Tracking details showed that the container was on its way back to Guayaquil because it had been rejected in the Port of Antwerp, Belgium.

Further investigations showed several other containers had been similarly rejected there and three additional ones were found with a total of 75 kilogrammes of cocaine, worth over $5 million, hidden in the refrigeration section of the containers.

Back in September, three containers from the small town of El Carmen in Ecuador were seized with various amounts of cocaine. As a result, the Ecuadorian shipping line ordered inspections of all containers originating from El Carmen, a centre for Colombian drug dealers.

Countries currently participating in the programme include Ecuador, Ghana, Pakistan, Panama, Senegal and Turkmenistan.

Source : HKSG, 02.01.10.