The 40th Arab Conference of Heads of Drug Control Agencies is being held in Tunis, with the participation of heads and members of various Arab delegations.
The meeting, which opened on Wednesday, aims to examine developments regarding the drug problem and explore ways to strengthen joint Arab security cooperation to curb the spread of drugs and mitigate their serious repercussions.
The Kingdom of Morocco is represented at the meeting by Naoufal Benkirane, Head of the Drug Trafficking Control Division within the Directorate of Judicial Police, and Abderrahim Benyakhlef, Head of the Regional Judicial Police Brigade at the Fez Police Prefecture.
The conference agenda covers several key areas, including the establishment of an Arab drug observatory, emerging trends and threats related to synthetic drugs, and international developments in the field of narcotics.
Particular attention will be given to production hubs, trafficking methods, counter-narcotics and enforcement strategies, and the overall impact on the Arab region.
The exchange of experiences and the sharing of best practices feature prominently in the deliberations – notably through the presentation of member states’ own experiences and action plans for combating drugs – noted Mohamed Ben Ali Koumane, Secretary General of the Council of
Arab Interior Ministers, during his opening remarks.
Koumane emphasized the importance of intensifying joint Arab efforts to combat narcotics, stressing the need for a comprehensive approach that extends beyond security measures to encompass various official and civil sectors, social institutions, and components of civil society.
Koumane announced that specialized meetings would be held on the sidelines of the conference, including the annual meeting of the working group tasked with the immediate exchange of information on drugs and psychotropic substances, as well as the second meeting of focal points for the Arab Observatory on Narcotics – an initiative the General Secretariat is working to establish in collaboration with the Arab League and with technical support from the European Union.
In his remarks, he also announced a meeting of the multidisciplinary group of Arab experts on addressing the drug problem, aimed at unifying efforts and developing response mechanisms to this phenomenon.
The meeting will also follow up on the initiative to organise an “Arab Week for Drug Prevention and Control,” which was approved during the previous conference.
For his part, the conference chair, Tareq Abou Chaafa Netfa, noted that the growing challenges – linked to the spread of drugs, the evolving methods of illicit trafficking, and the connections between cross-border criminal networks and other forms of organised crime – necessitate the continued development of mechanisms for coordination and the exchange of information and expertise.
He further emphasized that these challenges require strengthened intelligence and operational cooperation among relevant agencies, in order to enhance the effectiveness of security operations, combat such crimes more efficiently, and confront smuggling networks and organised crime.
Participating in this event are representatives from the League of Arab States, the Criminal Information Center to Combat Drugs of the Gulf Cooperation Council, the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol), the European Union Project on Combating Organized Crime and Terrorism, the Hemaya International Center, and the Naif Arab
University for Security Sciences.
AK/Sf/fss/as/APA