Maritime AI Real-time Intelligence Tools-Drugs

ongoing

The Dutch National Police and security partners have in recent years initiated and tested an intelligence-led and data-driven approach to gain a better grip on the transport component of maritime illicit drug trafficking. This baseline tool has been refined and tested to reveal deviant and/or suspicious shipping movements that may be linked to drug trafficking maritime transports. The hot spots (clusters of frequently recurring locations) of these deviant shipping movements were exactly located at the border of Belgium and the Netherlands. That is why in the MARIT-D project the Dutch, Belgium, French, Portuguese, and Spanish authorities have joined forces in aiming for more effective and seamless Law Enforcement in the area of illicit drug trafficking at their borders, relying on this tool as the linking pin. A critical bottleneck in the approach in the fight against illegal drug trafficking is the lack of cross-border collaboration between EU MS and LEA in particular. Fighting international organised crime groups is a vastly complex and difficult task with many of the individual member states authorities and agencies involved (police, border police, tax authorities, private security companies, etc.), each with their own tools, processes, and structures. That is why this project is taking the necessary steps in disrupting illicit drug trafficking in Europe by working closely together and by further harnessing and extending this intelligence-led and data-driven approach. In this project we will further develop the method and technology of MARIT, addressing current and new modus operandi and using current and new sensors and data sources, based on joint use cases and field pilots. Project results will be disseminated: EUROPOLs Innovation Lab has agreed to make MARIT-D accessible to all EU Member States after the project, through the ETR. And through a new Core Group that will function as an Advisory Board to the EuCB.