HE Secretary-General of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC) Dr. Nayef Falah Al Hajraf praised the role played by the Doha-based GCC Criminal Information Center to Combat Drugs (GCC-CICCD) in protecting the Gulf community from this type of transnational organized crime.

During his visit to the center, HE Dr. Al Hajraf commended the efforts made to enhance cooperation, coordination, and support the national strategies for drug control in the member states, and the regional and international achievements of the center, stressing the keenness of the GCC countries to enhance cooperation with brotherly and friendly countries, regional centers and international organizations in combating drugs and related organized crime.

His Excellency was briefed on the center's achievements in combating illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, and the control of chemical precursors, in addition to coordinating the efforts made by the Member States in the field of combating illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances.

Director of GCC-CICCD Brigadier Saqer Rashid Al Meraikhi explained the center's coordination of cooperation between the control agencies in the Member States to carry out joint operations and investigations, including controlled delivery operations, providing information and immediate data on all newly developed narcotic substances for the Member States, centers and counterpart organizations, and listing all international smuggling lines and new methods of concealment directed to the region and sending the necessary warnings about them.

Also, Al Meraikhi said that the center established a monitoring and early warning system, in addition to collecting and analyzing information on the illicit trade in narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, and chemical precursors, and providing assistance in the implementation of drug control programs to the competent authorities of the Member States and other countries, which signed agreements in the same field with the center. He briefed the GCC Secretary-General on the measures taken by the center in the field of drug control during the COVID-19 pandemic and the study prepared in this regard, in addition to another study on the increase in the manufacture of methamphetamine (Shabu) and its spread in the countries of the region and the illicit drug trafficking during the pandemic.

Brigadier Saqer Rashid Al Meraikhi stressed the role of the GCC General Secretariat in developing mechanisms and strategies for security work in line with the various challenges facing the region, saying the GCC sought through the establishment of the GCC-CICCD to support and enhance Gulf security joint effort in combating illicit trafficking in narcotics and psychotropic substances, controlling precursors, chemicals, and all related criminal activities, to limit their spread in our Gulf societies.

QNA