The Diplomat
The EU, Interpol and the Police Community of the Americas (AMERIPOL) have launched an operation against COVID-19 vaccine trafficking in the framework of a cooperation project managed by the International and Ibero-American Foundation for Public Administration and Policies (FIIAPP), a public entity of the Spanish Cooperation.
The European Union’s Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) and the Police Community of the Americas (AMERIPOL, based in Bogota) have been collaborating since last year on a project against counterfeit medical equipment within the framework of EL PAcCTO: support for AMERIPO, an EU-funded regional program to strengthen international cooperation among police forces, managed by FIIAPP and involving the Spanish Ministry of the Interior and the National Police.
The participants in the PAcCTO: support to AMERIPO have launched Operation Eslabón with the aim of locating and identifying the criminal networks, worldwide, that are planning to smuggle, counterfeit and traffic vaccines against the coronavirus pandemic. The operation involves the joint and simultaneous participation of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama and the Dominican Republic, countries that make up the AMERIPOL police forces, in addition to Interpol, Europol and OLAF.
“In this way, authorities worldwide are preparing to curb possible actions of transnational criminal networks that are planning to intervene in the legal markets for COVID-19 vaccines, through the counterfeiting, distribution and marketing of vaccines”, the FIIAPP said this week. Last December, Interpol issued a worldwide alert to all 194 member countries, calling for “vigilance against organized criminal networks interested in profiting from vaccines”.
