1. Main Theme of the Course
Effective Countermeasures against Illicit Drug Trafficking and Money Laundering.

2. Rationale
It goes without saying that illicit drug trafficking facilitates drug abuse which is one of the most serious global social problems, and also brings organized criminal groups substantial profits, which fund such groups activities and stimulates their growth. Much of these profits infiltrates the legitimate business sphere and may impair the integrity and stability of legitimate economic and financial systems as a whole. It has also been pointed out that some proceeds of drug trafficking may even go into the pockets of terrorist groups. Illicit drug trafficking and the proceeds derived from it, therefore, pose an immeasurable threat to the security of the government and the rule of law, as well as economic and political stability and the sound development of all countries, including Asia and the Pacific region.

It is obvious that law enforcement agencies should make every effort to prevent illicit drug trafficking related offences and investigate these offences thoroughly by utilizing various investigative methods. Controlled delivery and undercover operations, for example, have been utilized as effective investigative measures to date. On the other hand, when we pay attention to the fact that the purpose of illicit drug trafficking is to pursue financial gain, the most effective strategy is to deprive the perpetrators of their illicit proceeds and any property derived from them; and to control and criminalize the act of disguising and concealing the origin of this dirty money i.e. the act of "money laundering". This strategy will deprive criminals of their incentive to commit further crime and exhaust the funds for reinvesting in further criminal activities, which will inevitably weaken the functionality of these organized criminal groups or even destroy them. Such strategy has given us a new approach to effectively combat illicit drug trafficking.

However, dirty money is actually increasingly laundered on an international scale owing to the development of technology and the increasing globalization of the economy and society. We are all aware that money laundering itself poses a growing threat to our society as well as to the international economic and financial system. According to some research by the United Nations and others, estimates of the amount of money laundered globally in one year have ranged between $500 billion and $1 trillion, and the majority of this amount is the proceeds of drug trafficking. Criminals can have a deleterious effect on legitimate businesses parasitically and distort fair competition by their huge illicit proceeds. Furthermore, money laundering techniques have made rapid progress and become more sophisticated, for example, by the skillful use of shell corporations, off-shore financial centers (the safe haven of illicit funds), underground banking and the involvement of professionals such as lawyers and accountants. Organized criminal groups have strengthened their global networks among them rapidly.

In recognition of the gravity of this issue, various international initiatives have been taken to tackle illicit drug trafficking and money laundering. As regards the United Nations, the UN Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances was adopted in 1988, which requires State Parties to criminalize money laundering and take necessary measures to trace, freeze and forfeit the proceeds in relation to drug offences. The United Nations also adopted the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime in 2000, which provides for a comprehensive legal tool to effectively tackle transnational organized crime, and it requires State Parties to extend the scope of predicate offences of money laundering beyond drug trafficking to all serious crimes. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime has actively contributed to the fight against money laundering in various fields including implementation of the Global Programme against Money Laundering.

The G-7 Summit established the Financial Action Task Force on money laundering (FATF) in 1989, and most importantly, FATF developed the international standards " The Forty Recommendations" which set out a comprehensive blueprint for countries to implement effective anti-money laundering programmes. FATF examines the 29 member countries and territories' progress in implementing "The Forty Recommendations" through self-assessment and a mutual evaluation procedure, and also publishes a list of Non-Cooperative Countries and Territories to encourage those countries to improve their programmes. In addition, regional initiatives have been actively taken, for example the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) has addressed this issue to facilitate the implementation of internationally accepted money-laundering standards in this region since 1997.

In reality, nonetheless, we have encountered difficulties in detecting illicit drug trafficking and money laundering due to the clandestine nature and the complexity of these offences, including identifying, tracing and freezing the proceeds of crime. In this respect, we should introduce, by domestic legislation, innovative legal weapons provided in the above-mentioned UN Conventions and other international standards, and implement these more effectively by, for example, improving investigative techniques, in order to combat such crime.

Furthermore, it is widely acknowledged that due to the inherent global nature of illicit drug trafficking and money laundering, harmonization of countermeasures and international cooperation is indispensable, especially so as to deny creating safe havens to criminals and their illicit proceeds. If a country does not join our concerted battle, the illicit money will flow into that country and will be laundered. International cooperation needs to be stressed; information exchange mechanisms, and mutual legal assistance and extradition needs to be carried out in a more effective and expeditious manner. Without strengthening international cooperation, we can never win the "war on drugs".

Taking this into consideration, UNAFEI, as a regional institute (affiliated with the United Nations) for the prevention of crime and the treatment of offenders, decided to undertake a series of international training courses and seminars under the general subject of "countermeasures against transnational organized crime". This course is part of UNAFEI's continuing commitment to this internationally important theme.

3. Objectives
Giving due consideration to the above rationale, this Course will explore effective countermeasures against illicit drug trafficking and money laundering. By sharing and discussing lessons and successful practical examples which the participants will provide, we will be able to explore more effective countermeasures against drug trafficking and money laundering.

In the discussions of this course, focus will be placed on the following elements:

1. Current situation and problems of:
(1) Drug related crimes (including drug abuse and illicit manufacture, but especially focusing on illicit drug trafficking both internationally and internally; available case data, case examples, traffic routes, recent trends, etc)
(2) Money laundering both internationally and internally involving the proceeds of not only illicit drug trafficking but also all other predicate offences (available case data, case example, modus operandi, recent trends, etc)
(3) Involvement of organized criminal groups in illicit drug trafficking and money laundering
2. Effective investigation methods and other measures for illicit drug trafficking and money laundering. Practices and problems relating to the following methods and measures:
(1) Controlled delivery
(2) Electronic surveillance and communications interceptions, etc
(3) Undercover operations
(4) Immunity
(5) Utilization of informants
(6) Protection of witnesses (both at the investigative stage and the trial stage)
(7) Other effective methods
3. Legal frameworks, problems and solutions of:
(1) Criminalization of money laundering involving the proceeds of illicit drug trafficking
(2) Scope and extension of predicate offences for money laundering
(3) Establishment of the suspicious transactions reporting system, and the introduction of and the activities of Financial Intelligence Units (FIU)
(4) Cooperation by banks and non-bank financial institutions
(5) Confiscation (confiscation of the proceeds and assets), criminal/civil forfeiture, freezing systems, collection of the value of the proceeds, asset sharing and other related systems
(6) Shifting the burden of proof to the defendant, and any other methods of alleviating the prosecutors' burden of proof with respect to money laundering related offences
(7) Other anti-money laundering systems/strategies
4. Current situation and problems of international cooperation, such as:
(1) Information exchange
(2) Mutual legal assistance
(3) Extradition
(4) Joint investigation and border control