OSCE holds Kyiv seminar on seizing and recovering illegal proceeds of drugs and crime

KYIV, 6 September 2011 - The OSCE Strategic Police Matters Unit in co-operation with Ukraine’s State Financial Monitoring Service launched an anti-crime profits-recovery seminar in Kyiv today.

The three-day seminar follows the 2010 Vilnius workshop on co-operation to reduce the supply of synthetic drugs in the Baltic region. Participants there concluded that the most effective way to combat drugs is to undermine the profits of drug dealers through asset confiscation.

Criminal asset-recovery investigations are difficult, time consuming, and require a combination of resources, expertise, and the support of political authorities. The seminar brings together criminal justice practitioners to examine detailed case studies to determine best practices in the area.

“Drug trafficking is a very lucrative business for criminals whose corrosive multibillion-euro criminal profits affect every country. Depriving drug cartels and traffickers of the proceeds of their crimes sends a strong message. Criminals shouldn’t enjoy luxury built on the pain and suffering of others,” said Knut Dreyer, the Senior Police Advisor to the OSCE Secretary General, during the opening ceremony. 

More than 50 participants from Eastern Europe are taking part in the seminar. They will discuss all steps of assets-recovery procedures, including tracing, freezing, confiscation, repatriation, utilization and sharing of proceeds of crime.

"By targeting the financial well-being of drug dealers we are also cutting off financial support to other crimes such as corruption, human trafficking, terrorism and more. This is why co-operation among countries, law enforcement, financial institutions and the private sector is of high importance," said the Head of the Ukrainian Drug Control Service, Timoshenko Volodimir.

On 8 September in conjunction with the seminar, the Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities will hold a roundtable discussion on new payment methods for money laundering with the aim of raising awareness of changing criminal economic strategies.