In this podcast, Rene Karstens outlines how access to airline passenger records could boost the fight against international drug trafficking.
According to Karstens, a Swiss Federal Criminal Police officer, personal name records (PNR) would enable police and customs agencies to better “identify potential swallowers and body packers.”
The acting chair of the Airports Group of the Council of Europe’s Pompidou Group, admits however, that current data protection laws undermine law enforcement’s acccess to the passenger data.
Karstens and other national law enforcement delegates began their conference on the fight against international drug trafficking earlier today in Strasbourg.
A 2011 review of drugs seizures at airports reveals that members of the airports group conducted 7,526 drug seizures in the “sector of air traffic and ail shipments, which accounted for 33,885 kg” of narcotics.
Spain is now Europe’s drug- gateway hotspot, with the country’s law enforcement officials carrying out the most seizures.
The Essential
Information: Pompidou Group – Combating drug abuse and drug trafficking
Information: Council of Europe and drug policy
Podcast: European Drug Prevention Prize
Conference: Drug abuse and trafficking along the ‘Balkan route’
