For information only - not an official document
UNIS/MA/67
3 September 2014
VIENNA, 3 September 2014 (UN Information Service) - Media are invited to attend a 9 September special event on the UN Office on Drugs and Crime's (UNODC) Maritime Crime Programme titled, "Success of the Piracy Prosecution Model: A Blueprint to End Impunity at Sea".
There has been a dramatic shift in the last four years away from the northern trafficking routes to the maritime southern routes for heroin destined to Europe and North Africa. Naval forces belonging to the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) have seized 4,200 kg of heroin in the previous 18 months. The seizures have disrupted trafficking along the southern route, but they are also evidence of the huge volume of heroin being transported by sea.
Those caught on the high seas trafficking heroin are presently escaping prosecution. UNODC proposes to leverage its experience gained from pirate prosecutions under its Maritime Crime Programme and apply it to the prosecution of those involved in trafficking narcotics at sea. The special event on 9 September marks the start of this valuable process. Sessions will include an examination of drug trafficking in the Indian Ocean, the success of the piracy prosecution model and the rapid growth of the Southern route and drug seizures by the CMF.
What: Special event on UNODC's Maritime Crime Programme.
When: 9 September 2014, 10am to 12.00.
Where: Room C2, C Building, Vienna International Centre, Austria.
Who: Yury Fedotov, Executive Director, UNODC.
Keith Blount, Deputy Commander, CMF.
Joel Morgan, Minister of Home Affairs, Seychelles.
Raymond St Ange, Advisor, Ministry of Home Affairs, Seychelles.
David Stuart, Permanent Representative of Australia.
Aliyar Lebbe Abdul Azeez, Permanent Representative, Sri Lanka.
Rogers William Siyanga, President's Office, Tanzania.
Alan Cole, Head of the Maritime Crime Programme, UNODC.
For media accreditation:
Media representatives who wish to attend the special event who are not accredited can contact
press@unvienna.org.
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For further information or to arrange interviews with the speakers, please contact:
David Dadge
Spokesperson, UNODC
Telephone: (+43 1) 26060-5629
Mobile: (+43-699) 1459-5629
Email: david.dadge[at]unvienna.org
