The African Division of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) kicked off on Sunday here the 9th conference with the aim of improving anti-drug cooperations among its members.

"Global consumption and production of cocaine and heroin have been raised in the last decade," said David Assanty, director of the administration of special crimes in Interpol, adding that "to achieve success in fighting dealing drugs, there are two required major rules -- the strong presence in the battle field and identifying the networks to arrest them."

Drug abuse and the problems associated with it continue to grow in most parts of the world. The global abuse of drugs and the drug trafficking situation are becoming more complex, in part due to political and economic changes around the world which have led to increasingly open borders between countries.

"The investigations should be conducted on international level and to achieve that, we need 'co-police' cooperation," Assanty said.

The drug trade involves growers, producers, carriers, suppliers, dealers and users and affects people in almost all of Interpol's 187 member countries.

"International cooperation should be accomplished to fight drug trafficking through conducting more international conferences, strategic co-efforts, fighting drug planting and controlling its fertilizers, arresting trafficker networks, following illegal money used in drug deals," said Major General Adly Fayed, assistant of general security at Egypt's Interior Ministry.

Drug trafficking is often linked to other serious crimes such as people smuggling, organized prostitution and travel-document counterfeiting. It is often cited as a means to finance the more violent and destructive activities of criminal and terrorist organizations, because of the cash benefits derived from relatively minimal time and investment.

"If the drugs on sale are becoming less and the price is high, this means that we control it well and good efforts were exerted in fighting smuggling and trafficking," said Major General Magdy el-Shafiey, director of Interpol's Egypt office.

Interpol's primary drug-control role is to identify new drug trafficking trends and criminal organizations operating at the international level and to assist all national and international law enforcement bodies concerned with countering the illicit production, trafficking and abuse of cannabis, cocaine, heroin and synthetic drugs.

The three-day event, which will conclude on July 7, was attended by delegates from 31 African countries, 10 Arab and Asian monitors and eight monitor organizations.

Source: Xinhua