Swazi Observer

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COMPREHENSIVE STRATEGY KEY IN FIGHTING ORGANISED CRIME GROUPS

By Crime Watch | 2024-09-22

Organised crime groups are a major threat to peace, security and development, in the SADC region, Africa and beyond.

National Commissioner of Police Manoma Vusie Masango, speaking during the official opening of the multi-stakeholder consultative workshop on the development of Eswatini’s National Strategy to Prevent and Combat Transnational Organised Crime held on Monday, said organised crime affects every sector of society. He said this further created a heavy burden on the social, economic and political systems hence it was important that a strategy to deal with organised crime be put in place.

Activities
These organised groups operate across the globe and engage in criminal activities such as drug trafficking, human trafficking, arms trafficking, migrant smuggling, money laundering, cyber-crime, and many more illicit activities.

Their criminal activities generate billions of dollars annually.
Masango said the workshop aims to come up with a comprehensive document that would act as a road map and programme of action as Eswatini tackled transnational organised crime head-on and in a unified front.

He said it was important that this phenomenon of organised crime groups and mafia be not under-estimated or approached with complacency as it was complex. He noted that criminals organise, evolve and adapt to different environments, both socially and geographically.

He said he was hopeful that the meeting would come up with solutions and strategies that would address these vulnerabilities.

Masango said for this phenomenon to be conquered deeper and more effective cooperation between the state, private sector and non-governmental organisations was key. He said multi-sectoral and integrated approaches in the organised crime value chain is needed to ensure a working strategy that would address the threats and challenges posed by this scourge in their entirety.

“Cooperation and partnership should also look beyond our borders and operate on the international plane to dismantle the complex networks sustaining organised crime.”

Respond
He said criminals were always keeping up with the ever-evolving world hence it was not enough to respond to organised crime with traditional methods.

He said law enforcement must innovate, using technology, data analysis, and intelligence sharing to stay ahead of these criminal enterprises. He stated that the strategy must be dynamic, using the latest tools and approaches to disrupt and dismantle transnational organised crime operations proactively rather than reactively.

REPS Director General of Crime Detection Service, Deputy National Commissioner Mumcy Dlamini said as a nation it was time to adopt an inclusive and holistic approach that prioritised multi-sectoral response to transnational organised crime.

She said there was a need to recognise and appreciate that crime was diverse and required networking among various law enforcement agencies.

She said the SADC region have made great strides and adopted immense measures towards tackling crime hence same was expected of member states.

Dlamini said she was hopeful that the workshop would ensure that comprehensive and inclusive national crime prevention programmes were achieved as guided by regional, continental as well as international strategic instruments.

Head of Interpol Regional Bureau Sello Moerane said the SADC Transnational Organised Crime (TOC) integrated strategy was aimed at encouraging cooperation between law enforcement in the region instead of working individually.

“We are saying let partnering be the way of our working, we are more effective together if our efforts are mutually reinforcing, improving communication, sharing of data, digitalising systems that are interoperable, and creating a centre that holds through SARPCCO SADC Secretariat in partnership with RB Harare.

We are severely impacted by scourges of trafficking of migrant/smuggling of persons and organised crime and illicit flows used to fund terrorism.”

Moerane noted that tackling TOC threats in today’s dynamic world required extensive resources hence the need to work as a collective.

He said the essence and importance of fighting cross border crime and transnational organised crime was through identification and profiling of criminal high threat actors, groups and organisation operating in the region, as well as their ties in the global criminal landscape, and technologies they use.

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