The World Customs Organisation (WCO) on 26 June 2014 released its second edition of the Illicit Trade Report. The 2013 Report contains five sections, covering (i) drugs; (ii) environment; (iii) intellectual property rights (IPR); (iv) health and safety; and (v) revenue and security.
The Report builds on its first edition and provides a comparative analysis of trends and patterns in these five key risk areas of enforcement, based on Customs seizures reported through the WCO Customs Enforcement Network (CEN) database by its members. The objective of the report is to raise awareness on emerging threats, highlight Customs efforts and to contribute to the pool of information for studying the phenomenon of illegal trade.
Being a global repository of data, mainly on Customs seizures, the CEN database is a unique tool for global and regional analysis and the development of trends and patterns. It provides information on the activity of Customs administrations around the globe and challenges they face in their daily jobs. The database also contains valuable information on the new routings and modus operandi used by traffickers, smugglers and organised criminal networks.