Rwanda National Police

The 84th Interpol General Assembly entered its second day yesterday with delegates discussing crosscutting and most pressing cross-border security challenges faced by police worldwide.

The Assembly kicked off with a panel of experts discussing issues related with anti-corruption, financial corruption, and asset recovery – tackling the criminal threat to sustainable economic political and social development.

Expert panelists including the Interpol Executive Committee vice-president for Americas Alan Bersain, Interpol Executive Committee Delegate for Europe Filippo Dispenza, the head of NCB Nigeria Olushola Subair, the Italian Principle adviser to the president of the senate Rosario Aitala, and the director of Interpol Affairs in china Ying Wu.

Globally, businesses and governments are increasing their reliance on cyber-technologies, such as cloud computing, online banking and social networks. At the same time, the rate of change of new technology is increasing and public and private sectors are struggling to keep up with the risks of introducing and using new technology.

It’s on this not that panelists underlined the different kinds of challenges faced by investigators and prosecutors regarding the detection, investigation, prevention, and prosecution of corruption and financial crime schemes and the recovery of associated assets.

The panel also focused their debates on anti-corruption, financial crimes and asset recovery in the cyber era.

Later in the day, different panels discussed matters concerning drug trafficking: New threats, new challenges, and the need for a new approach with an insight on the 50 years into the war on drugs.

A penal moderated by Interpol’s director of Organised and Emerging Crimes unit, Roraima Andriani addressed both trafficking and consumer trends in substances including new psychoactive substances (NPS), heroin, methamphetamines and cocaine.

The second day of the 84th Interpol AGM ended with detailed discussion on cybercrime with experts drawing attention on the soaring Internet penetration that remains one of the key game changers in the security landscape confronting law enforcement.

They agreed that recent successes in the field show encouraging steps towards such a new, cohesive model for action against crime in cyberspace.

In a related development, following HE President Paul Kagame’s official opening of the AGM on Monday, experts held a roundtable meeting on the future landscapes for international policing and strategies in forming a global network to break the foreign terrorist fighter cycle.

The General Assembly is held under the theme ‘Interpol 2020: Policing global threats in a dynamic environment.’

Part of the assembly’s agenda is the addressing the criminal threat to the environment affecting not only natural resources but also national economies and communities, identifying potential areas for development in environmental security, including the increased use of forensic tools to identify criminal networks.

Delegates will also consider the creation of a new Interpol notice targeting criminal assets to support global efforts against corruption and financial crime.