At a conference jointly hosted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Grace Farms Foundation last week, hundreds of law enforcement officials gathered to discuss transnational threats, as well as the information sharing and best practices needed to tackle them.
“U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is extremely proud to have provided our partners with this networking opportunity today and would like to thank the Grace Farms Foundation for hosting us.” Frank Russo, director of the CBP New York Field Office, said. “It is through collaborative engagements such as this event that law enforcement agencies can develop proactive approaches to dismantle transnational criminal organizations.”
In attendance were 250 federal law enforcement officials, along with state and local agencies partnering with CBP. Together, they addressed numerous topics, including:
- Terrorism since U.S. troops withdrew from Afghanistan
- Identifying trends in narcotics and illicit gains from worldwide trafficking since the COVID-19 pandemic
- Recent inter-agency operations
- Dark web and its uses for illegal narcotics sales, as well as how international mail can disrupt them
- Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA): specifically how, now that it is in effect, the law will prevent the importation of goods with forced labor from China’s Uyghur (Xinjiang) region, along with other entities named as having participated in or facilitated forced labor activities in that region
- Gun violence: particularly how the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives New York Crime Gun Intelligence Center’s partners with the New York City Police Department and the use of the Gun Track dashboard to chart gun violence and illegal firearm locations
- New law enforcement technologies and programs being tested by CBP to secure commercial technology solutions to improve the safety and efficacy of frontline personnel
“In an increasingly interconnected world that has been widely impacted by the effects of a global pandemic, it is more important than ever that we convene law enforcement officials and external partners to face emerging threats,” Rod Khattabi, Chief Accountability Officer and Justice Initiative Director for the Grace Farms Foundation, a nonprofit focused on ending modern slavery and gender-based violence, said. “Through this Summit, we have increased an understanding of transnational crimes including forced labor, terrorism, the drug trade, and the dark web, their impact across borders, and how we can work together to disrupt criminal networks.”