While drug traffickers are constantly working on new ways to transit drugs all over the world, Europe makes sure the answer to it is nothing less but up to date effective mechanisms to stop it all. In order to do that, the Narcomap project for the last two years was working on research that aimed at collecting comprehensive data about drug trafficking routes and methods in 12 European countries.
The outcomes of the project lead not only to better understanding of illegal drug trafficking mechanisms, but will also help to empower all responsible institutions to fight this problem more effectively.
The Narcomap (www.narcomap.eu) transnational initiative was funded by DG Migrations and Home Affairs and coordinated by RiSSC (IT – www.rissc.it) and aiming at:
- Defragmenting and assessing of both the sources of data/information and the methodologies mostly used to generate quantitative and qualitative analysis
- Improving the existing knowledge base to respond to the specific needs of the diverse stakeholders involved mainly in a) the fight against drug trafficking b) the prevention/treatment of drug addiction c) monitoring/assessing the phenomenon
To this aim the project partners have collaborated to collect and further interlink information, direct and indirect indicators, and first-hand data coming from diverse sources and flows, with a special focus on an initial sample of 12 EU countries. The result is innovative because it combines the possibility to develop the criminological analysis of the phenomenon with a clear understanding of the limits and potentialities of available data.
The added value represented by this approach is to allow relevant stakeholders (international organisations, European and national authorities, law enforcement, policy makers and regulators, civil society, harm-reduction services and operators, drug-checking services, addiction treatment services, academics and researchers…) to clearly understand how the actual knowledge-generation process on drug trafficking is strongly affected and hindered by the limits of both data sources and flows. It is a sensitive issue since despite the efforts, even economic, a lack of/weak level of knowledge impacts also on policy and law-making, enforcement and intelligence, prevention and health-related services, civil society role, capacity building and awareness.
To present the project findings on the drug trafficking routes in Europe, as well as to propose and discuss possible solutions to improve the data collection process and assessment in the future, the Narcomap project is organising the final conference “Narcomap: improving knowledge on NPS and opiates trafficking in Europe” that will be held at Vilnius University (Lithuania) on 16th April 2019 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The conference is finalised at transferring at EU level the results of the research activities carried out since February 2017 by a consortium of partners composed by the Research Center on Security and Crime – RISSC (IT), Vilnius Institute for Advanced Studies – Vilias (LT), Risk Monitor (BG), and the University of Criminalistics and Police Studies – UCPS (RS). Conference is organised by project partners, Vilnius University and The Center for Crime Prevention in Lithuania.
For a comprehensive overview of the project we kindly invite you to attend Narcomap final conference. Please check detailed programme of the event and registration form.
For any Narcomap project related questions or more information about the conference please contact us via info@vilias.lt.
Narcomap Conference organizers
