SEACOP VI - Seaport Cooperation Project

Project

Published on April 8, 2024

Atelier du projet SEACOP en Argentine - © SEACOP — SEACOP project workshop in Argentina - © SEACOP

Project start date: November 14, 2023

Status
Ongoing
Project end date: October 31, 2026
Financing amount (Euro): 6m
Country and region: Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Barbados, Benin, Brazil, Cape Verde, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ivory Coast, Dominica, Ecuador, Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia, Sierra Leone, Suriname, Senegal, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, Africa, The Americas
Funders: European Union
Partners: Spanish Cooperation Agency (FIAP)

SEACOP VI enhances maritime security in West Africa, Latin America and, the Caribbean by strengthening port cooperations and fighting illicit maritim trafficking.

flowsCombatting transaltantic illicit flows : challenges and issues

The trafficking of illicit goods -including drugs- is an international phenomenon which has a devastating impact on social and economic development as well as on public health.

Orchestrated by transnational criminal groups operating across different continents and also often involved in other criminal activities (e.g.: kidnapping, money laundering, etc.), illicit goods trafficking has become a primary source of terrorist funding, further destabilising world stability. This phenomenon is difficult to stop due to its fast-changing nature.

One of the most important illicit flow routes through the Atlantic Ocean stretches from Latin America to Europe, by way of the Caribbean and West Africa. As criminal networks constantly adapt their methods, resources and transport routes, it is important to target all affected regions at the same time and to anticipate displacement effects of targeted areas, taking into account the complex criminal environments and the criminal convergence points in all regions of the world.

Capacity building to fight illicit maritime trafficking

The overall objective of SEACOP VI is to support the fight against illicit maritime trafficking and associated criminal networks, consistent with human rights in the targeted countries and regions in order to alleviate its negative impact on security, public health, the environment and socio-economic development.

More specifically, SEACOP V aims to:

Reinforce the capacities for analysis and identification of suspicious vessels and in-telligence sharing related to maritime/riverine illicit trafficking, including those subject to environmental criminality.
Strengthen capacities for maritime search and interdiction of illicit commodities, including those subject to environmental criminality.
Sustainably improve cooperation and information sharing at the regional and transregional level, including the promotion of law enforcement operations.

A project in line with previous anti-illicit trafficking initiatives

SEACOP VI is the sixth phase of the Seaport Cooperation Project, initially launched in 2010. SEACOP VI seeks to integrate, consolidate, and expand, the results achieved in the first five phases of the project.

While the previous SEACOP phases focused mostly on drug trafficking -specifically cocaine- this sixth phase aims to address transnational organised crime and related illicit trade more comprehensively. In line with the EU’s Strategy on Drugs 2021-2025, the project will prioritise international cooperation among authorities responsible for border security and combatting organised crime, with a focus on profiling and intelligence-sharing.

SEACOP VI will also explore new partnerships and new thematic areas such as environmental criminality and the associated trans-Atlantic illicit flows, and the development of sustainable regional training modules focused on trafficking.

SEACOP VI, a key component of the EU’s Global Illicit Flows Programme

From source to destination, countries located along illicit trafficking routes often suffer harmful consequences that affect daily life. Fostering violence and corruption and undermining good governance, illicit trafficking jeopardises national security and economic prosperity, leads to public health problems and causes significant environmental damage.

That is why, in November 2019, the European Commission’s Directorate General for International Cooperation and Development launched the Global Illicit Flows Programme of the European Union (GIFP), an umbrella programme which supports the fight against organised crime on trans-regional illicit routes, be it in relation to narcotics and the movement of pre-cursor chemicals, illicit arms trafficking, wildlife crime, or illicit financial flows.

Within the framework of this programme, SEACOP VI works with authorities in Latin America, the Caribbean and West Africa, in close cooperation with EU agencies fighting transnational crime and ensuring border security.

The implementation of SEACOP VI is supported by the expertise of Maritime Analysis and Operation Centre - Narcotics - MAOC-(N), direction générale des douanes et droits indirects -DGDDI (France), National Crime Agency - NCA (UK), Policia Judiciaria (Portugal), Directorate for Security and Defense Cooperation - DCSD (France) and the European Border and Coast Guard Agency – FRONTEX