Pubdate: Wed, 28 Aug 2002
Source: Taipei Times, The (Taiwan)
Copyright: 2002 The Taipei Times
Contact:  http://www.taipeitimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1553
Author: Jimmy Chuang

DRUG ENFORCEMENT SEMINAR BEGINS

COOPERATION: Officials from the US Drug Enforcement Administration are 
meeting with local law enforcement to help them improve their skills in 
hunting down dealers

The first joint Taiwan-US drug enforcement workshop kicked off yesterday in 
Taipei, following a groundbreaking agreement signed in March.

The four-day 2002 Drug Enforcement Work Training Seminar, held by the 
Bureau of Investigation and the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), 
runs until Friday. During the seminar, DEA Hong Kong Country Office Chief 
Thomas Ma ( "((BAM) and a team of four officials from Washington will share 
their experiences in drug enforcement with local law enforcement authorities.

The four DEA agents accompanying Ma are front-line anti-drug officers, who 
asked that their names be withheld from news reports for security reasons.

One hundred and sixty-five local officials, including the bur-eau's secret 
agents, coast guard officials, prosecutors and officers from the National 
Police Administration's Criminal Investigation Bureau and Aviation Police 
Bureau are participating in the seminar.

Speaking at the seminar's open-ing yesterday, American Institute in Taiwan 
Director Douglas Paal said that the US government recognizes Taiwan's 
efforts in drug enforcement and that cooperation between the two countries 
would continue.

"Drug dealers [are] actually taking the advantage of our freedom for their 
own commercial benefits. You have seen how the US government responded 
after being attacked by the terrorists on Sept. 11 last year. That's 
exactly what we will do to drug dealers as well," he said.

According to Paal, the Agreement on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal 
Matters (|D"AEYqak?-?U"o(c)w) has become an important and useful mechanism 
since it was signed by the US and Taiwan in March.

The accord paved the way for the two nations to swap judicial and other 
information, and to collaborate on tracking down fugitives, combating drug 
trafficking and money laundering.

"The cooperation between the US and Taiwan authorities in dealing with 
common challenges has been excellent. We hope that the best training from 
the American side and the young and excellent Taiwan authorities can work 
together and we're looking forward to a greater success," Paal said.

Bureau of Investigation Director Yeh Sheng-mao (,-2+/--Z) yesterday urged 
the governments of different countries to work together to declare a war on 
drugs.

"Since the DEA's establishment in 1973, its domestic and foreign 
performance against drug dealing has become a model for other countries," 
Yeh said.

According to Yeh, how to conduct undercover work, find drugs during the 
shipping or smuggling process and how to investigate and collect evidence 
of money laundering activities by drug dealers will be the main focuses of 
the seminar.

"Drug dealers today take advantage of high-tech equipment and advanced 
skills for their business. The good thing is that the DEA also has 
state-of-the-art equipment and technical expertise to deal with them [drug 
dealers]," Yeh said.
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