Controlled deliveries : a new tracking tool to tackle wildlife criminals

World Customs Organization (WCO), under the auspices of the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC), recently organised the first international workshop on Establishing a Network of Controlled Delivery Units for Forest and Wildlife Law Enforcementafter three days of deliberation ending on 9 December.

Controlled deliveries have long been a tool for investigating drug and tobacco smuggling but their use in wildlife smuggling is more recent and remains limited in scope. The five institutional partners which comprise ICCWC, the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), INTERPOL, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the World Bank and WCO therefore determined that an exchange of information and experience on the subject would be highly beneficial for wildlife enforcement officials.

Secretary-General of CITES, John Scanlon, said "the use of this enforcement technique will yield real results in bringing to justice those individuals who organize the smuggling of wildlife. And this workshop clearly demonstrates the added value of working together through the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime in taking up the fight against wildlife crime."

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