Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Fitzger­ald Hinds met with Head of Del­e­ga­tion of the Eu­ro­pean Union to this coun­try Pe­ter Cavendish to­day to sign a MOU which for­malis­es the im­ple­men­ta­tion of the Sea­port Co­op­er­a­tion Project Phase V (SEA­COP V).

The SEA­COP is aimed at ef­fec­tive­ly ad­dress­ing the broad spec­trum of chal­lenges pre­sent­ed by or­ga­nized crime and drug traf­fick­ing, par­tic­u­lar­ly co­caine traf­fick­ing. In 2015, T&T agreed to par­tic­i­pate in the Eu­ro­pean Union SEA­COP Project.

The fol­low­ing is a press re­lease from the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty: 

Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty the Ho­n­ourable Fitzger­ald Hinds M.P. and Head of Del­e­ga­tion of the Eu­ro­pean Union to Trinidad and To­ba­go, His Ex­cel­len­cy Pe­ter Cavendish, to­day, Wednes­day May 18, 2022 signed an his­toric Mem­o­ran­dum of Un­der­stand­ing (MOU).

The MOU for­mal­izes arrange­ments be­tween the Gov­ern­ment of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go and Ex­per­tise France to im­ple­ment the Sea­port Co­op­er­a­tion Project Phase V (SEA­COP V) in Trinidad and To­ba­go. Ex­per­tise France will be ad­min­is­trat­ing the SEA­COP in this re­gion.

The Sign­ing Cer­e­mo­ny took place at the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Head Of­fice at Tem­ple Court 1, 31-33 Aber­crom­by Street, Port-of-Spain. Speak­ing at the Sign­ing Cer­e­mo­ny, both Min­is­ter Hinds and His Ex­cel­len­cy Cavendish stat­ed that the MOU sign­ing demon­strates the fur­ther strength­en­ing of col­lab­o­ra­tion be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go and the Eu­ro­pean Union, as it re­lates to com­bat­ting transna­tion­al crime, in par­tic­u­lar the trans­ship­ment of il­lic­it nar­cotics, which will re­dound to bol­ster­ing do­mes­tic, re­gion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty.

Al­so speak­ing and sign­ing the MOU, on be­half of Ex­per­tise France, was Project Di­rec­tor of the SEA­COP Mr. Do­minique Bu­cas. In 2015, the Gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go agreed to par­tic­i­pate in the Eu­ro­pean Union SEA­COP Project. SEA­COP was es­tab­lished in 2010 and is one of sev­en (7) projects un­der the wider Eu­ro­pean Com­mis­sion-fund­ed Co­caine Route Pro­gramme (CRP), which is aimed at ef­fec­tive­ly ad­dress­ing the broad spec­trum of chal­lenges pre­sent­ed by or­ga­nized crime and drug traf­fick­ing, par­tic­u­lar­ly co­caine traf­fick­ing.

The Project seeks to en­hance ca­pac­i­ties and strength­en co­op­er­a­tion against mar­itime traf­fick­ing in coun­tries on the transat­lantic co­caine route, via the cre­ation of in­ter-agency units in key ports, as well as the es­tab­lish­ment of a na­tion­al mar­itime in­for­ma­tion sys­tem to pro­mote in­for­ma­tion shar­ing.
SEA­COP Phase V, will fo­cus on re­in­forc­ing the ef­fec­tive­ness of the SEA­COP mar­itime in­tel­li­gence and mar­itime/river­ine con­trol net­work ge­o­graph­i­cal­ly and tech­ni­cal­ly; sus­tain­ably in­te­grat­ing knowl­edge on mar­itime threats and in­ter­dic­tions em­a­nat­ing from the transat­lantic il­lic­it traf­fick­ing routes in­to na­tion­al and re­gion­al cur­ric­u­la; as well as in­creas­ing co­op­er­a­tion and in­for­ma­tion shar­ing at the na­tion­al, re­gion­al and trans-re­gion­al lev­els, to in­clude or­ga­ni­za­tions such as the Eu­ro­pean Union Agency for Law En­force­ment Co­op­er­a­tion (EU­ROPOL) and the Eu­ro­pean Bor­der and Coast Guard Agency (FRON­TEX).
 
Through the SEA­COP Phas­es I to IV, lo­cal law en­force­ment of­fi­cials have al­ready par­tic­i­pat­ed in train­ing ex­er­cis­es and sub­ject mat­ter ex­per­tise ex­changes geared to­wards en­hanc­ing ca­pac­i­ty in the de­tec­tion and in­ter­dic­tion of nar­cotics. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, there has been at least one of­fi­cial seizure of co­caine; and the re­ceipt of equip­ment for use in op­er­a­tions to re­duce mar­itime traf­fick­ing. 
 
Al­so present at the Sign­ing Cer­e­mo­ny were Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary (Ag.) of the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Mr. Gary Joseph; Chief of De­fence Staff Air Vice Mar­shal Dar­ryl Daniel; Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (Ag.) Mr. Mc Don­ald Ja­cob; Chief Im­mi­gra­tion Of­fi­cer Ms. Char­maine Gand­hi-An­drews; Comp­trol­ler of the Cus­toms and Ex­cise Di­vi­sion (Ag.) Mr. Bernard Nicholas; Deputy Di­rec­tor of the In­ter­na­tion­al Af­fairs Unit, Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, Ma­jor (Ret’d) Richard Lynch; rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Transna­tion­al Or­ga­nized Crime Unit and Na­tion­al Op­er­a­tions Fu­sion Cen­tre; as well as Pro­gramme Man­ag­er Ms. Mon­i­ca Paul-McLean and Po­lit­i­cal Of­fi­cer Mr. San­jin Sol­dat­ic of the Del­e­ga­tion of the Eu­ro­pean Union in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Fol­low­ing the MOU Sign­ing Cer­e­mo­ny, Min­is­ter Hinds host­ed a cour­tesy call with the Head of Del­e­ga­tion of the Eu­ro­pean Union to Trinidad and To­ba­go, His Ex­cel­len­cy Pe­ter Cavendish, and Project Di­rec­tor of the SEA­COP Mr. Do­minique Bu­cas. Dis­cus­sions re­in­forced the long­stand­ing bi­lat­er­al re­la­tion­ship be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go and the Eu­ro­pean Union, and fo­cused on deep­en­ing en­gage­ments as well as ex­pand­ing joint ini­tia­tives.