In order to continue its efforts to develop its anti-organized crime machinery and improve border security, Benin is hosting a national COPES workshop. This event, which was opened by Colonel Nestor Degila, Director of Resource Management representing the Director General of Customs and Indirect Rights, took place from May 18 to 22, 2020.

This remote pilot training, covering the collection of evidence and the first request, is a first for the COPES Programme, which thus finds a way to continue its activities despite the crisis of the coronavirus.

The aim of this action is to maximise the impact of the action of Beninese customs and to better integrate the action of its services into the criminal chain by providing additional support to managers and field agents, by providing them with COPES stamped methodologies and good practices.

As such, customs officers are trained in evidence collection, seizure and investigation techniques. This five-day training thus covers the entire spectrum of customs law enforcement activities from detection to prosecution, including initiation into forensic science. The professional standards taught must, where appropriate, lead to judicial investigations and prosecutions leading to the imposition of criminal sanctions.

WCO site relay