State releases International Narcotics Control Strategy Report

Early in March, the Department of State Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) released the 2013 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR). The INCSR provides an overview of counternarcotics efforts by the governments of over 90 countries, including several U.S. departments and agencies, to reduce illicit narcotics production, trafficking, and use in 2012. The two-part report documents efforts to combat all aspects of the international drug trade in 2012, with volume I covering drug and chemical control, and volume II covering money laundering and financial crimes.

Volume I identifies Afghanistan, The Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Burma, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Peru and Venezuela as major drug transit and/or major illicit drug producing countries. The report also highlights Bolivia, Burma, and Venezuela as countries that have failed demonstrably during the previous 12 months to adhere to their obligations under international counternarcotics agreements and implement the measures set forth by the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.

Volume I also focuses attention on international counternarcotics training programs that are managed by INL. The INL training is implemented by a variety of U.S. government and law enforcement entities, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Patrol, and the U.S. Coast Guard.

Money laundering and other financial crimes are covered in volume II of the INCSR. Volume II defines a money laundering country as one “whose financial institutions engage in currency transactions involving significant amounts of proceeds from international narcotics trafficking,” and lists over 60 countries as major money laundering countries in 2012.

Volume II highlights the most significant steps countries and jurisdictions categorized as “major money laundering countries” have taken to improve their anti-money laundering/counter-terrorist financing regimes. Volume II also details U.S. government counter-money laundering efforts by the Federal Reserve System as well as the Departments of State, Treasury, Homeland Security, and Justice.

For more information about the report, please follow the link below.
2013 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, Department of State