The Southeast European Law Enforcement Center and the Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training (OPDAT) at the U.S. Department of Justice, organized on 27-28 November 2018, at SELEC Training Center, the Workshop on Combating Intellectual Property Theft through Increased Container Security.
The workshop was attended by high level officials, by investigators, customs officers and prosecutors from SELEC Member States and from Cyprus, Georgia and Ukraine.
The Director General of SELEC, Mrs. Snejana Maleeva, as well as Mr. Augustin Lazar, the Prosecutor General of Romania, Mr. Victor Wili Apreutesei, Deputy General Inspector of the Romanian Police, Ms. Abigail Rupp, Deputy Chief of Mission, U.S. Embassy in Bucharest and Ms. Anca Pop, Intellectual Property Law Enforcement Coordinator, addressed the participants at the opening of the workshop.
During opening remarks, Mrs. Maleeva mentioned the importance of the topic, briefed about SELEC’s mission and provided information about the SELEC Container Security Task Force established in 2005. Mrs. Maleeva expressed appreciation as regards the long term collaboration with USA which proved to be very fruitful in achieving the common objective of combating transnational organized crime, as a proof standing also the joint organization of this workshop. USA has been a close partner since the establishment of SECI Center in 1999, currently having the status of Operational Partner with SELEC.
The event consisted of one day interactive presentations focused on container training, identification and interdiction of counterfeit goods, new technology used to track containers around the world, risks associated with container transportation and best practices to reduce these risks, investigation and prosecution of intellectual property rights cases, whilst the second day was dedicated for practical exercises and demonstrations involving counterfeit goods and containers.
The workshop was followed by the 10th meeting of the SELEC Container Security Task Force held on 29 November 2018.