France-Spain-Italy tripartite meeting to fight against organized crime - drug trafficking - trafficking in human beings
Eighty magistrates and investigators from Spain, Italy and France met on Monday the 15th of October 2018 at the Institute of Political Studies of Aix-en-Provence.
At the instigation of Robert Gelli, attorney general at the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal, this meeting devoted "operational progress and ambitious prospects for the judicial cooperation of the three countries at the Mediterranean level".
This enhanced cooperation between the three countries involves defining a common strategy to reach those involved in drug trafficking.
The Italian delegation was led by Giovanni Russo, the first national vice-prosecutor of antimafia and anti-terrorism, and the one from Spain by the national drug prosecutor, Jose Ramon Noreña Salto.
The Mediterranean area concentrates large trafficking and criminal organizations. "This is an area that attracts investment and money laundering," said judges, police, gendarmes and customs officers present.
Furthermore, the participants pointed out the "major challenge" that is the port areas, the seaway being the most used by traffickers.
Mediterranean judicial cooperation could go as far as defining the country best placed to conduct a cross-border investigation, including organizing a single trial with defendants of different nationalities.
Shared files were presented including the collaboration between judges of the prosecution of Genoa and those of the prosecution of the Specialized Interregional Jurisdiction (Jirs) of Marseilles.
Finally, Frédéric BAAB, magistrate, French representative of the agency Eurojust presented the role of his institution and was pleased with this meeting which strengthens the bases of a judicial task force to fight drug trafficking and Human being
This judicial cooperation should be rapidly enlarged: a meeting of the attorneys general of the countries of the two shores of the Mediterranean is scheduled at the beginning of December in Aix-en-Provence. During this meeting, the focus will be on improving seizures and confiscations of criminal assets.