Dominican Republic Joins Palermo Platform Against Transnational Organized Crime
Attorney General Yeni Berenice Reynoso signed in Lisbon for the country to join a regional platform against organized crime. It is the first Caribbean and Central American nation to do so.
Key points
- Attorney General Yeni Berenice Reynoso signed the agreement on October 27 in Lisbon, Portugal.
- The Dominican Republic is the first Caribbean and Central American country to join the Palermo Platform.
- The meeting brought together 132 prosecutors and experts from 18 countries.
- Topics included drug trafficking routes, money laundering and recovery of illicit assets.
Dominican Attorney General Yeni Berenice Reynoso signed an agreement in Lisbon, Portugal, that brings the Dominican Republic into the Palermo Platform, an initiative against transnational organized crime. According to the Attorney General's Office, the country is the first member of the Caribbean and Central American region to join the platform. The signing took place on October 27, during a meeting of prosecutors and experts from 18 countries coordinating efforts against drug trafficking and money laundering.
The platform is currently chaired by Geovanni Melilo, Italy's national anti-mafia and counter-terrorism prosecutor. It draws inspiration from the fight led by anti-mafia judges Geovanny Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. Its goal is to offer a coordinated response through strategic criminal prosecution.
The signing was supported by the European Union's cooperation program EL PAcCTO 2.0. The meeting was organized with Eurojust, the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO), the Portuguese Attorney General's Office and Italy's National Anti-Mafia and Counter-Terrorism Directorate (DNA). A total of 132 prosecutors and experts from countries in Latin America, Europe and Angola took part.
During the third edition of the EL PAcCTO 2.0 Judicial Coordination Meeting, experts analyzed drug trafficking routes, new money laundering methods and mechanisms for recovering illicit assets. The work was coordinated by Giovanni Tartaglia Polcini, the program's deputy director.
At the opening, the program's director, Spaniard Javier Samper Orgilés, said: "To understand a transnational organization, we must reconstruct the connections between its various activities, even when the information is fragmented among the authorities of different countries." Prosecutors and specialists agreed that tracing money and exchanging data between countries are key to curbing the expansion of drug trafficking networks.