Interpol News

Maritime AI company Windward has announced a partnership with INTERPOL, the International Criminal Police Organization, to assist in their mission of facilitating a secure maritime environment.Windward’s Maritime AI will provide intelligence to help identify, track, and prevent criminal activities such as illicit trafficking, human smuggling, piracy and illegal fishing.The lack of actionable visibility in the maritime domain emboldens criminals, negatively impacts global trade…

Arsenio Dominguez, Secretary-General of the IMO, addressed the United Nations Security Council at its 9,525th meeting reiterating his condemnation of the attacks against international shipping in the Red Sea.“Attacks against international shipping in the Red Sea area are not acceptable,” he said. “Ships must be allowed to trade worldwide unhindered and in accordance with international law.”Since the beginning of November, a number of attacks have been launched against international vessels navigating in the Red Sea which hosts around 15% of international shipping trade.

Venezuela's top court has ruled to give the U.S. government 60 days to request the extradition of fugitive Malaysian businessman Leonard Glenn Francis, also known by his alias "Fat Leonard," who is implicated in a U.S. Navy bribery case.The supreme court ruling was issued last week but only made public on Wednesday by a reporter with official media.Francis was arrested on Sept. 21 at Caracas' main airport as he prepared to leave for Russia. The U.S. government had previously issued…

Venezuelan police have arrested a fugitive Malaysian businessman nicknamed 'Fat Leonard' who is at the center of a major U.S. Navy bribery scandal, as he prepared to leave the country for Russia, Venezuelan Interpol said.Leonard Glenn Francis was detained at the country's main international airport on Wednesday under a red notification requested by the United States for crimes of corruption and bribery, the Interpol chief in Venezuela said in a statement posted on Instagram.The…

A Portuguese man is set to face an extradition hearing in Madrid over allegations he was involved in the devastating 2020 port explosion in Beirut, authorities said on Thursday.The man, named in court as Jorge Manuel Mirra Neto Moreira, flew to Chile from the Spanish capital this week but was put on a plane back to Madrid after Chilean authorities detained him at the request of global police agency Interpol.He appeared before a Madrid high court judge on Wednesday and was released…

Interpol has issued red notices for the captain and owner of the ship that carried the chemicals which devastated Beirut in an explosion in August, killing 200 people, Lebanon’s state media said.Five months since one of the biggest non-nuclear blasts on record, big questions remain about the ammonium nitrate that detonated after being stored at the port for years.The Interpol notices, which are not international arrest warrants, ask authorities worldwide to provisionally detain people pending possible extradition or other legal actions.

Lebanon has asked Interpol to issue arrest warrants for the Russian captain and owner of the ship that brought the explosive material that detonated at Beirut port in August, killing nearly 200 people, state media reported on Thursday.About two months after the explosion that injured thousands and ravaged the Lebanese capital, questions remain about why and how the cargo was abandoned in Beirut.Authorities have blamed it on the huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate, used for fertilizer but also for explosives…

In the murky story of how a cache of highly explosive ammonium nitrate ended up on the Beirut waterfront, one thing is clear—no one has ever publicly come forward to claim it.There are many unanswered questions surrounding last week's huge, deadly blast in the Lebanese capital, but ownership should be among the easiest to resolve.Clear identification of ownership, especially of a cargo as dangerous as that carried by the Moldovan-flagged Rhosus when it sailed into Beirut seven years ago, is fundamental to shipping, the key to insuring it and settling disputes that often arise.But Reuters interviews and trawls for documents across 10 countries in search of the original ownership of this 2…

The chemicals that went up in flames in Beirut's deadliest peace-time explosion arrived in the Lebanese capital seven years ago on a leaky Russian-leased cargo ship that, according to its captain, should never have stopped there."They were being greedy," said Boris Prokoshev, who was captain of the Rhosus in 2013 when he says the owner told him to make an unscheduled stop in Lebanon to pick up extra cargo.Prokoshev said the ship was carrying 2,750 tonnes of a highly combustible chemical from Georgia to Mozambique when the order came to divert to Beirut on its way through the Mediterranean.The crew were asked to load some heavy road equipment and take it to Jordan's Port of Aqaba before resuming their journey onto Africa…

Cyprus has located and questioned a Russian man named in multiple news reports as the owner of the ship that carried a cargo of ammonium nitrate abandoned in Beirut and that exploded in a devastating fireball.A Cyprus police spokesman said an individual, who he did not name, was questioned at his home in Cyprus on Thursday afternoon."There was a request from the Interpol Beirut to locate this person and ask certain questions related to the cargo," the spokesman, Christos Andreou, told Reuters.

Brazilian investigators said on Friday a Greek-flagged ship carrying Venezuelan crude was the source of oil tarring thousands of kilometers of coastline over the past two months.While prosecutors and police did not name the vessel, a prosecutors' document obtained by Reuters identified the ship as the Bouboulina, owned by Greece's Delta Tankers Ltd. Police said the tanker appears to have spilled the crude about 700 km (420 miles) off Brazil's coast between July 28-29, bound for Singapore with oil loaded at Venezuela's San José terminal.Delta Tankers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Brazil's solicitor general said the country would seek damages in the case…

Brazil's federal police on Friday announced a potential breakthrough in the investigation into the causes of a mysterious oil spill that has baffled authorities and Brazilians for about two months.Police said they were investigating a Greek-flagged ship allegedly responsible for the oil spill, which they claim may have occurred about 700 km (420 miles) off the Brazilian coast between July 28-29 after the vessel made a stop in Venezuela.In a statement, federal police said they were carrying out search warrants at addresses linked to a company of Greek nationality.Brazilian authorities said they had also requested cooperation from international agencies…

International Maritime Organization (IMO)'s rules and regulations for suppressing unlawful acts against the safety of navigation can be seen in the wider context of the global fight against terrorism.The United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (UNCTED) carries out assessment visits to countries to assess their compliance with various international security instruments and UN Security Council resolutions.IMO took part in a follow-up visit to the United Kingdom (7-11 October) together with experts from Interpol, the World Customs Organization and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, particularly to assess the country's implementation of the special maritime security measures in IMO's SOLAS chapter XI-2…

Multilingual communication is essential in bringing the work of the United Nations closer to the world’s citizens, fostering trust among Member States and facilitating informed decision-making.By making information available in all official languages, the language and conference services enable their organisations to communicate better, and to be more open, accountable and participatory.International Maritime Organization (IMO) confirmed its commitment to multilingualism at the International Annual Meeting on Language Arrangements, Documentation and Publication (IAMLADP) in Brussels, Belgium (27-29 May).IAMLADP is an international forum…

A training tackling maritime crime is undergoing in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (10 - 28 March 2019), informed the International Maritime Organization (IMO).Members of three key regional maritime security agreements -The Djibouti Code of Conduct; the West and Central Africa Code of conduct; and the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP)-, which IMO has helped to establish, are participating in the program.Thirty participants from 24 countries are learning theoretical and practical skills to deal with piracy/robbery against ships, drug trafficking, marine terrorism, weapons smuggling…

Maritime law enforcement officials from Kenya are taking part in a two week training course on best practices for visit, board, search and seizure of vessels, in Mombasa, Kenya (11-22 February).The multi-agency course brings together 30 officials to learn skills for effective coordination in combating maritime crimes and procedures used to successfully board and search a vessel of interest.The training is part of International Maritime Organization (IMO)’s support for implementing the Jeddah Amendment to Djibouti Code of Conduct 2017, a regional agreement against maritime crime in the Gulf of Aden and western Indian Ocean area, which…

Legal experts and port and maritime security officers from Bangladesh, Maldives and Sri Lanka have gathered at  International Maritime Organization (IMO)  in London (27-29 November) for a focused sub-regional workshop on implementing transport-related (maritime) counter terrorism instruments.A press note from IMO said that the joint United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and IMO Counter Terrorism/Security sub-regional workshop was a follow-up to three national workshops in the same countries."This is part of an ongoing UNODC/IMO project to boost implementation of IMO maritime security and counter terrorism treaties, including SOLAS Chapter XI-2 and the suppression of unlawful acts (SUA) instruments.

International Maritime Organization (IMO) is supporting countries from the Gulf of Guinea region in their plans to enhance maritime security.Participants from 10 countries - Benin, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Senegal and Togo, as well as international partners such as INTERPOL and the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office - are taking part in a workshop in Monterey, USA (6-10 August) on developing and refining their work plans. This includes introducing new topics directly related to the successful implementation of maritime security strategies – such as negotiation skills for secure political and inter-Ministerial cooperation.The workshop…

Global trade by sea is dependent on the interconnection between ships, ports and people - and everyone needs to be involved, from port operators, to regulators, to maritime security experts and innovators in technology. The theme of mutual cooperation and collaboration was highlighted throughout a special event on ports, held at  International Maritime Organization (IMO) Headquarters (11 June). The Special Port Event was supported by IMO Secretary-General Kitack Lim, in collaboration with the International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH). Across four sessions, 18 panellists shared their views on port related issues such as automation and digitalisation…

Signatory States to an agreement aimed at repressing piracy, armed robbery and illicit maritime activity in the western Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden Area have agreed that building response capability and information sharing are vital steps towards achieving a more safe and secure maritime environment. The signatories to the revised Code of Conduct concerning the repression of piracy, armed robbery against ships and illicit maritime activity in the western Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden Area, known as the Jeddah Amendment to the Djibouti Code of Conduct 2017, were meeting In Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for a high level workshop (7-10 May) for all signatory States and States eligible to sign the Jeddah Amendment, donors and implementing partners.

Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) is considering using a chemical marking system to help trace oil products smuggled out of the country, its chairman said on Wednesday. Mustafa Sanalla also called on a European Union naval mission to combat smugglers by seizing their ships in the Mediterranean, said the United Nations should consider sanctioning smugglers, and urged Libya to reform massive subsidies that allow fuel to be sold for as little as 2-3 U.S. cents per liter. "The fuel smugglers and thieves have permeated not only the militias which control much of Libya…

Indonesia, acting on a request from Interpol, has seized a fishing boat carrying 600 illegal gillnets that can stretch up to 30 km (18 miles) after it evaded capture in several countries, the Fisheries Ministry said. The vessel, the STS-50, had targeted Antarctic toothfish, the ministry said, a cod species that plays an important role in the Southern Ocean ecosystem. Gillnetting, which uses walls of finely meshed nets, has been banned in Antarctic waters since 2006 and is described by Australia as posing a huge risk to “almost all marine life”. Officially stateless, the STS-50 evaded authorities by flying eight different flags at different times, including those of Sierra Leone, Togo, Cambodia, South Korea, Japan, Micronesia and Namibia, the ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

Indonesian police on Thursday questioned the captain and crew of a luxury yacht in Bali at the request of U.S. authorities, probing alleged money laundering at a Malaysian state fund, they said. The yacht was impounded in Bali on Wednesday amid a multi-billion dollar corruption investigation launched by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and tied to Malaysian state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). Police seized the yacht, Equanimity, after receiving a letter on Feb. 21 from the U.S.