UAE part of GCC project to cut drug trafficking

DUBAI // The UAE has agreed to participate in a GCC-wide anti-drug initiative, created in cooperation with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

The initiative is to create a Gulf Crime Information Centre in Qatar, with the aim of reducing drug trafficking cases across the GCC.

The UAE is one of five GCC countries to have signed on to support the project, according to Hatem Aly, the head of the GCC sub-regional office at the UN drugs office.

The Gulf Crime Information Centre is to facilitate information-sharing between GCC countries and coordinate joint operations and investigations. It will also carry out studies on the problem of drug trafficking in the GCC.

The centre is to be based in Doha, and each member country is to nominate a liaison officer.

"The cooperation between different police authorities is supposed to contribute to increasing number of seizures and arrests. In the long term, the cooperation would result in a decrease of drug cases in the region," Mr Aly said.

He was unable to disclose which countries apart from the UAE and Qatar are participating in the centre.

The decision came after the UAE ratified the centre's basic structure through Federal Decree 62 of 2010.

wissa@thenational.ae