DEA Press Release
High-level law enforcement officials from Canada, France, Italy and the United States will
meet to discuss strategies designed to combat worldwide drug trafficking and global
organized crime, September 12-14 at the Hay-Adams Hotel in downtown Washington. DEA
Administrator Thomas Constantine, host of the Franco-American-Canadian-Italian Conference
welcomes the opportunity to exchange ideas and coordinate efforts, "This
conference is an outgrowth of the international law enforcement cooperation which led to
the breakup of the `French Connection' in the early 1970's. It's in that spirit that we
gather to face the successor generation of drug traffickers, better organized, richer,
more sophisticated, technologically adept and determined to profit at the expense of
worldwide social and political well being. We'll be discussing cooperation and developing
strategies to insure that there is no safe haven for international criminals anywhere in
the world."
"Great inroads against drug trafficking have been made through Canadian,
French, Italian and American cooperation since the days when we were concentrating on
reducing the flow of opiates from Turkey through France to the U.S. including the recent
arrests of 6 of the 7 top Cali Mafia kingpins in Colombia. Even greater inroads can be
made if we implement better controls on the chemicals used to produce drugs and if we
share successful strategies that can be adapted locally around the world. We must continue
to seize the traffickers' assets and use those assets against the criminal organizations
themselves. Most importantly, our cooperative law enforcement efforts will help forge a
world where traffickers are severely and consistently punished and our citizens are no
longer drawn into the drug trade." Administrator Constantine added.
The conference will include briefings from each delegation on the drug situation in
their countries, reports on the worldwide cocaine and heroin situations, sessions on
Nigerian trafficking groups and Russian organized crime, reports on the precursor
situation and money laundering, and a look at new automated booking stations and computer
forensics.
In addition, as part of the exchange of information and ideas the foreign attendees
have requested a presentation on DEA's recently initiated Mobile Enforcement Team (MET)
program. The METs are mobile and strategically located teams of Special Agents that can be
deployed to communities across the country which are faced with escalating drug violence.
The specially trained teams work with local authorities to dismantle violent drug gangs
and remove them from the community. "We've been really pleased with METs
successes. Since the METs concept became operational in April, we've deployed 19 active
teams and made a real difference in the communities we've assisted. The METs concept is
effective and can easily be adapted to other countries. I'm looking forward to these
discussions and to hearing about initiatives that we might be able to adopt here," Constantine
stated.
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