Anti-drug prosecutors approve recommendations to improve investigations into the environment and drug trafficking

The Ibero-American Network of Anti-Drug Prosecutors (RFAI), part of the Ibero-American Association of Public Prosecutors (AIAMP), approved last week at its annual meeting in Chile the documents commissioned by the European Union’s COPOLAD III Program to improve drug trafficking investigations from an environmental perspective. The AIAMP’s Environmental Protection Network, also participating in the project, had already given its approval to the documents in October this year.

With this approval, the products can be submitted to the next Ordinary General Assembly of the AIAMP, where they will be analyzed and eventually adopted definitively by the Attorneys General of Ibero-America.

The documents, developed with EU funding, are primarily intended to analyze how the region’s public prosecutors’ offices address cases of illicit drug trafficking involving actual or potential damage to the environment, based on their investigative and prosecutorial powers and, in some cases, their powers to protect and assist victims and witnesses.Based on this assessment, technical assistance formulated a series of guidelines to support institutions in creating and strengthening coordination spaces between prosecutors specializing in drug trafficking and teams responsible for investigating crimes against the environment.

As a result of the work carried out, two main products were delivered to the AIAMP Networks.
The first is a regional assessment that analyzes:

• How illicit drug trafficking is classified in Ibero-American countries.
• The current or potential environmental damage caused by such trafficking.
• The existence or absence of catalogs of environmental crimes that allow for the investigation of such damage or risks to ecosystems.
• The way in which public prosecutors’ offices have internally organized their specialization in drug trafficking and environmental crimes, including units, specialized prosecutors’ offices, and coordination mechanisms between them.

The second product is a document of guidelines designed to be applied flexibly according to the institutional reality of each Public Prosecutor’s Office. It proposes guidelines for improving the investigation and prosecution of drug trafficking crimes with environmental impacts, covering issues such as possible legal reforms, the creation of formal coordination spaces, proper management of crime scenes, strengthening scientific evidence, asset investigations, and international cooperation.

The ultimate goal of this activity is for public prosecutors to adapt these guidelines to comprehensively investigate complex criminal phenomena, with an environmentally sensitive and sustainable approach, while contributing to the protection of communities living in fragile ecosystems affected by illicit activities related to drug production, transport, and supply.

The environmental component of drug policies has become increasingly important in recent years and is part of the political roadmap promoted by the Cooperation and Coordination Mechanism on Drugs between the EU, Latin America, and the Caribbean. COPOLAD III has produced a report entitled “The Silent Destruction” which highlights the environmental impacts of drug trafficking and drug policies in the region and is currently developing a public policy toolkit for Latin American and Caribbean governments that want to include an environmental perspective in their drug policies. Finally, the program has also produced various guidelines on the management and final disposal of drug precursors.