India launches anti-narcotics training programme for CSC member countries

The meeting will see participation from Sri Lanka, Maldives, Mauritius and Seychelles, apart from state police officials from various Indian states, including Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and others, writes ETV Bharat's Gautam Debroy.

New Delhi: Furthering its fight against narco-trafficking, India on Monday kickstarted a five-day training programme for drug law enforcement officers representing member countries of the Colombo Security Conclave (CSC) in the capital. Issues such as the trafficking of drugs, including those of Afghan origin, narco-terrorism, sea and airport interception of drugs will be discussed during the programme.

"The training has been designed keeping in mind the emerging drug trafficking scenario in the Indian Ocean region, which the CSC countries are part of," a senior official from the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) said while speaking to ETV Bharat. Topics to counter other emerging global drug trafficking threats are also included in the training. "Clear web investigations, dark-net, crypto-currency investigation, courier and parcel interdictions, financial investigation and precursor control mechanism are some of the topics, which are the most relevant world over, will also be addressed," the official added.

Besides participants from Sri Lanka, Maldives, Mauritius and Seychelles, participants from the state police forces of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Delhi and Punjab, as well as NCB officers, are part of the training. India, Sri Lanka and Maldives launched the trilateral forum on maritime security cooperation in 2011 to enhance engagement and cooperation between the three countries in maritime security issues.

The trilateral mechanism underwent an expansion in its scope in November 2020 at the 4th NSA-level meeting held in Colombo. At that meeting, the three-member countries agreed to expand the scope of cooperation to include other common security challenges faced by them. It was also agreed to expand the membership of the group to include other like-minded countries in the Indian Ocean Region and rename the group as the "Colombo Security Conclave (CSC)."