ABU DHABI // A new security summit is expected to bring Latin American, African and Middle Eastern officials together in the UAE to tackle the issues of narco-terrorism, drugs and transnational crime.

The International Security Cooperation Summit is scheduled to take place for the first time in Dubai from November 24 to 26.

“The UAE has been experiencing an increase in trafficking of cocaine, among other drugs, coming from South America through Africa, or directly from Africa,” said Johan Obdola, the president of the International Organisation for Security and Intelligence, which is organising the summit.

“The security implications for the UAE and the rest of the region are yet to be seen, as the criminal-terrorist alliances between Latin American groups with African and other terrorist and criminal groups in the Middle East are in their first stage of penetrating the region.”

The summit will address these security threats at government and law-enforcement levels.

“I met Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, [president of the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority], and he suggested I organise such a conference in Dubai,” said Mr Obdola.

“There is a deep concern in Latin America and the Caribbean about the rapid expansion of Latin American and African criminal-terrorist organisations in Africa, and, in recent years, they are orienting their operations to the GCC.”

The UAE and its neighbouring Arabian Gulf countries will be able to learn first-hand about the roots, implications and how to improve counter-narcotics, counter-transnational crime and counter-terrorism programmes from the participating countries.

“The summit will not only bring valuable information and case studies, but it will also open doors for direct meetings between decision-makers,” he said.

Ivan Briscoe, a senior research fellow at the Conflict Research Unit of the Clingendael Institute of International Relations in The Netherlands, said there was considerable evidence that Gulf countries were important sites for consumption of some of the principal illicit products.

“If we look at flows of illicit drugs across the Maghreb, the Sahel, particularly going through Libya at the moment, there is a very strong suggestion that one of the reasons that this route has assumed importance is because of high levels of consumption in the Gulf,” he said.

“Globally, organised crime has become a much more networked operation in the past 20 years. The former notion that there were structured, vertical cartels or mafia operations that would have a central boss-style figure or managers who would use their political links to carry out illegal operations in drugs, prostitution or human trafficking, is no longer relevant.

“So Gulf states play a key role because they’re a hub of financial services, of capital, and key transport links between east Africa and Asia,” said Mr Briscoe.

A spokesman at the US embassy in Abu Dhabi said African-based drug-trafficking organisations were significantly involved in the shipment of cocaine from South America, through Africa and the Middle East. “African transnational criminal groups are an emerging threat in the illicit trafficking of cocaine and heroin [globally],” he said.

But he added that the region was mostly a transshipment point, given the large maritime and air travel centres in the area. “The end destination for these narcotics is most commonly Europe and Asia.”

The summit is expected to attract more than 300 attendees, including government officials and law-enforcement officers from the GCC, Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, the US and Africa.

“It is vital that the earliest the UAE Government develops more complex and effective security programmes to deal with these issues, the better opportunity it will have to be more successful in protecting its national security,” said Mr Obdola. “As the UAE is in constant social and economic development, attracting migrants not only from the Middle East, Asia, Europe and North America, but also an increasing number of people from Latin America and Africa, this has a great impact in the sustainability of its growth while representing a constant challenge for its national security.”

cmalek@thenational.ae