Actions to combat organized crime are more effective when the legal system contemplates measures to attack illegally accumulated wealth. According to data from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), only 1% of illicit resources are recovered for the benefit of society. Due to the great challenge that Public Administrations have to combat drug trafficking more effectively through the prosecution of organized crime assets, the European Union’s cooperation programs on drugs (COPOLAD III) and asset restitution (Bien Restituido) together with the Financial Action Task Force of Latin America (GAFILAT) are holding an international seminar in Buenos Aires on May 30 and 31 on the recovery, administration and destination for social and community use of assets confiscated from drug trafficking and organized crime.
The seminar includes a Technical Dialogue between organizations involved in the administration and destination of confiscated assets in Latin America and Europe on May 30, the Conference itself on the afternoon of May 30, as well as a presentation on Friday, May 31, together with representatives of the Chamber of Deputies of the Nation.
Among the main experts who will be in Buenos Aires are Bruno Corda, Director of the Italian National Agency for the Administration and Destination of Assets Seized and Confiscated from Organized Crime (ANBSC) and Tatiana Giannone – from Libera. Associazioni, nomi e numeri contro le mafie (Italy), Luis Montero, from Spain’s Fondo de Bienes Decomisados or Jaime Andrés Osorno, vice-president of Colombia’s Sociedad de Activos Especiales, which deals with the recovery of drug trafficking assets. Esteban Fullín, Executive Secretary of the Financial Action Task Force, the regional body responsible for this issue, will also be present.
The conference will be attended by a representative of Argentina’s Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship, the Dean of the Law School of the University of Buenos Aires, Leandro Vergara; the Ambassador of the European Union in Argentina, Amador Sánchez Rico, among others. Participants will include the heads of confiscated assets management agencies from Italy, Spain, France, Colombia, Brazil, Uruguay, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica and other institutions related to this issue from 17 countries in Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as civil society organizations.
The EU-funded project “Bien restituido” has just presented, with the signature of 30 deputies from different blocks, a bill for the creation of a national agency for the administration of assets confiscated from organized crime and for the use of these assets for social purposes in Argentina.
The European Cooperation Program on Drugs COPOLAD III, formed by a consortium of a Spanish public organization, FIIAPP and the Italian-Latin American Organization IIILA, has placed the fight against money laundering at the center of its implementation strategy and collaborates at the regional and bilateral level with intergovernmental organizations and national institutions to strengthen strategies for the identification, recovery and use for social purposes of assets confiscated from drug traffickers.
GAFILAT has just approved changes to international standards to strengthen asset recovery at the regional level and among the adjustments made to the FATF Recommendations, countries are invited to “consider establishing a confiscated asset recovery fund into which all or a portion of confiscated assets are deposited for law enforcement, health, education or other appropriate purposes”.
The recommendations of the meeting will be compiled through a Policy Paper that will be shared within the framework of the EU/CELAC Coordination Mechanism on drugs.
