INTERPOL Training on Firearms Programme Policing Capabilities for Investigating Firearms /Environmental Crime
From 6 to 20 June 2018, INTERPOL Environmental Security in cooperation with the INTERPOL Firearms Programme (iARMS Project) organized three training sessions gathering 19 countries, to train participants on different aspects of a controlled delivery as well as the INTERPOL illicit Arms Records and tracing Management System (iARMS). To this effect, Botswana, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe were invited to participate in three different sessions from 6-8, 11-13 and 18-20 June 2018. These trainings were the occasion to discuss the connections between environmental crimes and illicit firearms trafficking, train participating countries in their readiness to participate in a transcontinental controlled delivery involving source, transit and destination countries and train them in the efficient operation of the iARMS database and to understand the use of INTERPOL Firearms Programme’s policing capabilities such as INTERPOL Ballistic Information Network (IBIN) and INTERPOL Firearms Reference Table (IFRT).
Funded by the European Union, the INTERPOL Illicit Arms Records and tracing Management System (iARMS) is a platform that facilitates information exchange and investigative cooperation between law enforcement agencies in relation to the international movement of illicit firearms. Countries are encouraged to upload records of lost and stolen firearms in iARMS. Consequently, in the case of a recovered firearm, the database is queried and the country can identify when and where the firearm was diverted into illegal possession.
Shall the query not generate a positive result, the user can send a request to the country of manufacture, country of last legal import (if marked on the firearm) and to any country that may be connected to the case.
