ASEAN customs officers trained on incident reporting system

JAKARTA, 11 September 2019 – Twenty-five customs officers from nine ASEAN Member States participated in a two-day training on the Precursors Incident Communication System (PICS) and the Project ION Incident Communication System (IONICS) on new psychoactive substances and non-medical synthetic opioids.

Organised and supported by the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) on 10 and 11 September in Jakarta, Indonesia, the training was officiated by INCB Programme Manager Fumio Ito; Drew G. Engel, adviser on Prosecution of Forestry Related/Organized Crime of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime; and Syarif Hidayat, Director of International and Public Affairs, Directorate General of Customs and Excise of Indonesia.

In his remarks, Hidayat thanked the INCB for the opportunity given to ASEAN customs officers to participate in the training. He believed that the training will enhance the participants’ knowledge on the implementation of the programme, analytical and technical ability of customs personnel, and on most current issues of transnational organised crime, illicit trade of drugs, their production and distribution, precursors and synthetic chemicals. He hoped that this programme could help ASEAN in boosting its contribution to the protection of world trade, security and justice, to make the world safer and to improve the global supply chain security, with emphasis on the regional trade.

The participants were exposed to the INCB’s two web-based secured incident communication systems, PICS and IONICS. All participants are now part of the two reporting systems that enable them to provide and receive worldwide incident reports.

Currently, access to PICS and IONICS is limited to government officials  working  on    drugs  control.

The cutting edges of these systems include their broad user-base that is comprised of various government authorities related to drug control; and real-time information exchange among frontline officers with first-hand knowledge of incidents involving new psychoactive substances, synthetic opioids and precursors.

The INCB is a United Nations entity mandated to ensure licit flows of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and precursors under the control of the three UN drug conventions, and prevent diversion of these controlled substances. The INCB has accumulated expertise and experiences in responding to trafficking in non-controlled precursors in preventing precursor diversion, through its global projects for the last three decades. Its approach is focused on assistance to Member State Governments in strengthening supply reduction through facilitating information exchange and operational cooperation.