As part of the agreement reached between the Cooperation Program between Latin America, the Caribbean and the European Union on Drug Policy (COPOLAD) and the Special Assets Company (SAE) of Colombia, a training workshop and exchange of experiences dedicated to the social use of assets seized from drug trafficking took place in Bogota from June 13 to 16.
The meeting, organized by COPOLAD, was attended by several experts from Italy, a country with extensive experience in this field: Prefect Bruno Corda, Director of the National Agency for the Administration and Destination of Assets Seized and Confiscated from Organized Crime (ANBSC), Massimo Meccheri, project technician of the International Italo-Latin American Organization (IILA) in COPOLAD III, and Nicola Russo, magistrate of the Court of Appeal of Naples and expert of the Program.
Upon their arrival in Bogota, the specialists met with the Minister of Justice and Law, Néstor Osuna, and with the Director of Drug Policy, Gloria Miranda, who requested COPOLAD III’s participation and technical accompaniment in an inter-institutional roundtable that will establish the basis for a comprehensive regulation for the social use of assets of illicit origin, with a particular emphasis on the reparation of communities historically affected by the armed conflict, criminal violence and the war against drug trafficking.
The training and experience exchange workshop, coordinated by Bruno Corda and Nicola Russo, was attended by SAE officials Francis Vargas, Manager of Special Projects, Eloísa Vargas, Head of the Planning Office, Juan Carlos Bolívar, Regional Manager of the Center East, Social Leasing and Provisional Assets Assignment, Manuel Rubio, Coordinator of the Internal Working Group of Popular Depositaries, and Jairo Bautista, Vice President of Enterprises. The SAE is the Colombian public agency responsible for the confiscation and management of assets derived from drug trafficking and other illegal activities.
Towards regulatory change
The activity held in Bogota is aimed at fulfilling the main objective of the accompaniment itinerary agreed between the European Union’s COPOLAD Program and the Special Assets Company, which is to increase knowledge on the social reuse of assets confiscated from mafias, so that they benefit the community.
Based on the European experience in this field, COPOLAD supports the SAE in the implementation of the institutional change it is undertaking. In fact, the technical assistance and training workshop held in Bogota is a continuation of several virtual technical dialogue meetings held earlier between prosecutors, ANBSC experts and the SAE to discuss case studies on the procedure for allocating and tracking assets seized from criminal organizations.
The final outcome of the process is the creation of an inter-institutional technical working group to elaborate an operational protocol based on Italian and European best practices on the social reuse of seized assets. Such a document could form the basis for a regulatory reform project in Colombia.
During its first eight years of operation, COPOLAD has been a regional program; however, it is currently in a new phase, in which the EU Program also accompanies the improvement of public policies at the national level, a section to which the present initiative belongs.
