A meeting of the Expert Working Group of the Paris Pact on Preventing the Diversion of Precursor Chemicals was held in Bucharest from October 24 to 25, 2022, in support of the third pillar of the Vienna Declaration, which was organized by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime as part of the Paris Pact Initiative (UNODC) and the Southeast European Law Enforcement Center (SELEC).
Representatives of the Ministry of Justice and the Office for Combating Drugs of the Government of the Republic of Serbia took part in the meeting.
The Paris Pact is one of the most important frameworks in the fight against opiates originating in Afghanistan, it aims at the reduction of illicit traffic in opiates including opium poppy cultivation, production and global consumption of heroin and other opiates, and at the establishment of a broad international coalition to combat illicit traffic in opiates. The Paris Pact initiative aims to organize annual meetings of experts on each of its four thematic pillars, and the third pillar that was the subject of the meeting in question relates to preventing the diversion of precursor chemicals used in the illicit production of opiates. Among other things, the meeting presented the latest trends in the routes and techniques used for the smuggling of precursor chemicals intended for use in the production of heroin/methamphetamine, and the latest trends in the seizure of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors in CARICC member states, the latest situation in Afghanistan, as well as the drug situation in Tanzania and Uzbekistan.