On 3 March 2022, the Ministers of the Interior of the Member States of the European Union and Ministers in charge of security matters of the Member States of the Latin American Committee for Internal Security (CLASI) adopted a joint declaration on the fight against transnational organised crime with a particular focus on drug trafficking. The joint declaration starts a new dialogue between the EU and Latin American countries in order to develop a common cooperation culture at the political, technical and operational level.

In the short term, a temporary counter narcotics task force is to be established whose mandate will be to launch joint operations on the basis of shared threat assessments. Furthermore, common operations will identify and seize criminal assets linked to drug trafficking within the framework of the EU’s EMPACT cooperation platform.

In the medium term, it is planned to launch a network of law enforcement officers specialised in the fight against drug trafficking between the Latin American States and the EU Member States. This network will also operate together against the use of encrypted networks and other digital tools by organized criminal groups.