The CEPOL Italian National Unit took part in a joint CEPOL/Europol initiative aimed at raising awareness of EU law enforcement agencies within Member States by organising several seminars on Europol and CEPOL in the host’s national language.
On 6 and 7 March 2012, the Scuola di Perfezionamento per le Forze di Polizia in Rome, Italy hosted such a seminar entitled “Europol – added value in combating organised crime and terrorism”. The event’s target group consisted of Italian senior police officers involved in countering organised crime and terrorism as well as active in the field of international and European police cooperation.
The Seminar was opened by the Director of the Scuola, who introduced Europol and CEPOL representatives and presented the following program:
- Europol’s objectives and role
- The role played by the Europol Nation Unit (ENU)
- CEPOL’s mission and objectives
- Analysis of Eastern European Organised Crime (AWF EEOC)
- Presentation of the Trafficking in Human Beings project (AWF Phoenix)
- Payment card frauds and forgery of money
- Analysis of pornography-related phenomena on the Internet (AWF Twins).
CEPOL, represented by Stefano Failla, External Relations Officer, focused its presentation on the future potential of the Agency and stressed that a European training scheme for senior police officers represents an added value for cooperation among police forces.
Valerio Papajorgji, Europol Team Leader, dealt with the objectives of the AWF Twins concerning sexual exploitation of children, i.e.
- to identify criminals and establish links within countries that are involved in the project;
- to identify the criminal modus operandi and highlight the communication system used by criminal groups so as to dismantle them;
- to identify victims so as to stop sexual abuse and allow competent authorities to start the required procedures for their recovery process;
- to stop re-victimization of abused children through circulation of illegal material.
Massimiliano Michenzi, member of the AWF Terminal, which deals with the fight against payment card frauds, illustrated various investigative techniques implemented in connection with some case studies. Furthermore, he analysed the support provided by Europol in the fight against forgery of money.
Roberto Codesal, head of the AWF EEOC project, analyzed Eastern European organised crime. The “Rescue Operation” case study was also analysed and participants’ attention was drawn to the “HAVEN” project (Halting Europeans Abusing Victims in Every Nation), aimed at countering illegal activities – notably, sexual abuse - committed by EU nationals who travel worldwide to the detriment of children living in the destination countries.
All of the Europol experts were supported by the following Italian experts: Luigi Mancuso, Salvatore Ciprì, Elvira D’Amato, Nicola Fusco and Gaetano Terrasini.
The event concluded with four workshops that provided participants with the opportunity to gain a deeper insight into the topics covered.
The seminar stressed the need to raise Italian national police forces’ awareness of the benefits that could be had from Europol’s support to their investigations. This valuable support can be in the form of criminal intelligence management as well as use of advanced technologies and is provided to those Member States that request Europol’s cooperation. With this in mind, a significant proposal was made, i.e. to include these topics in the professional courses for Italian police forces to be held in the 2012-2013 academic year.
