EU Action on Container Control In Latin America, The Caribbean and West Africa

List of countries is TBC as of January 2026. Morocco is indicated as a potential associate country for the EU Action For Container Control project.

Context

Global maritime trade moves more than 860 million containers each year, underpinning the global economy but also enabling organised crime to exploit high-volume shipping routes. With less than 2% of containers physically inspected worldwide, traffickers move a wide range of illicit goods, including drugs, falsified medical products, illicit waste, endangered timber and illegally mined minerals, using increasingly sophisticated concealment and routing methods, often shifting to secondary ports to avoid detection. These vulnerabilities are particularly significant for the European Union, where around 75% of external trade passes through maritime ports and over half of all drug seizures occur at ports. 

These illicit flows are transnational, adaptive and often sustained by corruption, allowing criminal networks to infiltrate legitimate supply chains and undermine state institutions. West Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) are key transit regions for commodities destined for Europe, with ports routinely exploited due to limited inspection and risk-analysis capacities, porous borders and well-established trafficking networks. Cocaine shipments from Latin America frequently transit through West Africa, while both regions face growing trafficking in falsified medical products, hazardous waste, and illegally sourced timber and gold.

Strengthening port controls, inter-agency cooperation, and international coordination is therefore essential to disrupting these illicit supply chains, safeguarding legitimate trade and reinforcing border security along key trafficking routes connecting LAC, West Africa and Europe.

Overall Objective

This project aims to support the disruption of illicit trafficking via containers, and the establishment and strengthening of Port Control Units (PCUs) in West Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Specific Objectives

• To strengthen the capacities for identification and search of suspicious maritime containers.
• To improve international exchange of information and intelligence.
• To enhance interdiction capacities in major international seaports, dry ports, land borders and container terminals.

Concrete Activities

• Technical needs assessment missions aimed at analysing current security architecture, level of interdiction and training/equipment needs.
• Development of inter-agency cooperation agreements and/or standard operating procedures (SOPs) as necessary.
• Deliver Passenger and Cargo Control Programme (PCCP) training and mentoring sessions to PCUs.
• Provide targeted capacity-building activities for PCUs based on specific regional needs.
• Organisation of workshops targeted at enhancing women’s roles and participation in law enforcement, or facilitating private sector engagement in PCCP activities to foster exchange of advanced information.
• Actively contribute to global and regional joint operations targeting high-risk illicit commodities and trafficking routes and foster cooperation with Associate country.
• Strengthen the cooperation of the project’s partner countries with Law Enforcement agencies of EU Member States on container control and exchange of information, in particular through EMPACT.

Expected Results

• Capacities for search and interdiction of illicit commodities trafficked via containers are reinforced in the targeted regions.
• Capacities for analysis and identification of suspicious containers and intelligence sharing related to trafficking via containers are reinforced in the targeted regions.
• International cooperation, information sharing and participation in cross-border law enforcement operations at regional, trans-regional level and with EU Member States is improved.

Expected achievements

• PCCP coverage is strengthened through the inclusion of a new Partner country, and the establishment of a new PCU.
• Operational capacity of national border management agencies improved through the strengthening of existing PCUs via at least 4 technical assessment missions.
• At least 6 advanced, specialised training delivered to PCUs per year covering risk assessment, intelligence-led targeting and profiling, container inspection and interdiction techniques, evidence handling, emerging trafficking trends, priority illicit commodities, and gender-responsive approaches, alongside strengthened regional and international intelligence-sharing practices.
• Enhanced access to actionable intelligence for all PCUs ensured, including the deployment, functionality and regular use of secure information-sharing tools such as the WCO CENcomm 3 system within participating units.
• Joint operational actions conducted by PCUs, including coordinated inspections and investigations at national, regional and inter-regional levels.
• Structured cooperation mechanisms strengthened between PCUs, EU institutions and EMPACT, and relevant international and regional organisations to support operational coordination and strategic alignment.
• Public–private cooperation mechanisms activated, with at least 1 specialised training activity per year, enabling systematic engagement between law enforcement authorities and private-sector stakeholders on container security and border control.