Law Enforcement & Public Safety / Counternarcotics

Pakistan

In 2008, PRO-telligent conducted an assessment of the Narcotics Affairs Section (NAS) Pakistan’s engagement in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) in order to identify and analyze lessons learned and successful practices in counternarcotics efforts within these regions.

The assessment included interviews with key U.S. and Pakistan principals, as well as interviews with individuals in field operations, who have been directly involved in these efforts over the past 20 years. This Project resulted in an in-depth report that documents NAS Pakistan’s approach to Counternarcotics, and provided specific recommendations in designing U.S. Government development programs for deeply traditional societies.

Eastern Europe

PRO-telligent staffs the Support for Eastern European Democracy (SEED) Regional Officer. The primary goal of the SEED is to promote democratic and free market transitions in the former communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe, enabling them to overcome their past and become reliable, productive members of the Euro-Atlantic community of Western democracies.

PRO-telligent is supporting the planning, development and oversight of U.S. Government’s narcotics and law enforcement affairs policy and programs in those countries funded through SEED funds. PRO-telligent Counternarcotics Advisory Services provide consulting services to the SEED Regional Officer. PRO-telligent provides Embassy support to countries within the region on a myriad of law enforcement issues, including narcotics, financial forensics, organized crime, smuggling of goods and small arms, trafficking of persons, intellectual property rights, and environmental and cyber crimes.

PRO-tellignet also provides staff support for the Southeastern Cooperative Initiative (SECI) coordinator located at the SECI Center in Bucharest, Romania. SECI Center is an operational regional organization bringing together police and customs authorities from 13 member countries in Southeast Europe.

Colombia

PRO-telligent serves on the frontlines of drug crop eradication, working in close partnership with the government of Colombia through the Narcotics Affairs Section (NAS) at the U.S. Embassy, Bogota. A PRO-telligent Senior Scientific Advisor was chosen to support the Department of State NAS/Bogota. The work of PRO-telligent contributed to the initiation of aerial spraying of coca (in Colombia in the mid-1990s), as well as the development of a formal protocol, which is, now Colombian law.

In addition to providing expert technical advice to the U.S. and Colombian governments, PRO-telligent assists NAS/Bogota in the implementation of improvements to herbicide systems—conducting field research, not only in illicit coca fields, but also at a joint Colombian-U.S. coca research site – the only such center in the world. Experiments conducted by NAS/Bogota were established to simulate growers’ anti-eradication techniques, in order to improve coca eradication and assessment methods.

Additional studies examine how the yield of coca leaf, harvested four times a year and processed to produce cocaine, is affected by the variety of coca being grown. Since it can be highly dangerous to conduct low-altitude and on-the-ground coca field inspections in inherently hostile areas, PRO-telligent also analyzes remote sensing imagery, and is working with the NAS aviation group on issues related to pilots’ response to hostile ground fire. Other topics currently being researched include how to distinguish coca from legal crops during aerial spraying.

Afghanistan

From 2005 to 2006, PRO-telligent provided Program Management Oversight Support to the U.S. Government’s Poppy Elimination Program (PEP). This keystone $250 million counternarcotics effort by the U.S. in Afghanistan supported efforts by the Government of Afghanistan’s (GoA) provincial governors to prevent poppy cultivation and eradicate poppy crops. PRO-telligent also deployed Counternarcotics experts specializing in soil science to Afghanistan to assess the success of the 2007 poppy eradication initiative, and brief government ministers on the risks and benefits of using the herbicide glyphosate as a potential method for poppy eradication. PRO-telligent also provided Senior Counternarcotics (CN) Advisory Services to the Ministry of Counternarcotics (MCN), Kabul, Afghanistan. The MCN is a highly visible governmental institution responsible for developing and implementing national Counternarcotics policy.

PRO-telligent focused on improving and expanding MCN administration of the U.S.-U.K. supported Good Performers Initiative (GPI). While the MCN has capable Afghan managers for GPI, they are few in number and the Minister specifically requested senior U.S. CN Advisory Services from DoS-INL. PRO-telligent provides CN assessment, analysis and evaluation expertise to the U.S. Embassy NAS to support the expansion of GPI management capabilities within MCN.

In addition, PRO-telligent provided CN Liaison Services to the regionally-based Counternarcotics Advisory Teams (CNAT), the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), and the U.S. Military Public Information/Information Operations Officers.

PRO-telligent identified opportunities for assistance and facilitated the formulation and implementation of policies/programs at the regional level, as well as coordination of initiatives on counternarcotics programs among NAS-Kabul, U.S./ISAF military, GOA and other international partners.